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James Murray Mason 



THE 

PUBLIC LIFE 

AND 

DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE 

JAMES "^. MASON 

WITH SOME PERSONAL HISTORY 

BY 

VIRGINIA MASON 

(His Daughter) 



Second Thousand 



NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON 
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1906 



t^^M4 



LIBRARY of CONORESS 
Two Copies Received 

FEB 14 1906 

CLASS ^f. XXc. No. 



fOPY 



To the Young Men of l^trginia I dedi- 
cate this book with the earnest prayer 
that it may be instrumental in arous- 
ing them to a full sense of personal 
responsibility for the public weal, and 
in stimulating them to provide for 
their State an incorruptible govern- 
ment administered by statesmen who 
regard public office as a sacred trust. 



COPYRIGHT, 190? 
BY VIRGINIA MASON 

COPYRIGHT, 1906 
BY VIRGINIA MASON 



Printed and Bound by 

The Stone Printing and Manufacturing Co. 

Roanoke, Virginia 



INDEX. 



CHAPTER I. 



Lineage — George Mason of Gunston — Gen. John Mason — Mrs. John Mason — 
Life of Matron at that Day — Birth of James M. Mason — Incidents During 
War of 1812— The Chew Family — Early Life in Winchester — The Young 
Lawyer and His Compeers as Described by Hon. H. A. Wise — Marries 
Eliza M. Chew — Early Married Life Described in Mrs. Mason's Letters . 

CHAPTER II 20 

Elected to Legislature— Political Creed — Different Ideas in Convention of 
1787 Regarding Functions of Federal Government — Voted for Resolu- 
tions Protesting Against Internal Improvement by Federal Government — 
Defeated in Next Election Because of This Vote — Card Explaining and 
Justifying His Position — Re-elected to Legislature — Letter from John 
Randolph of Roanoke— Speech in Legislature — Letters from Mrs. Mason — 
Candidate for House of Representatives, Defeated — Extract from Win- 
chester Newspaper — Domestic Life — Appointed Member of Board of 
Visitors of University of Virginia — No Personal Interest in Contest for 
Rights of Slaveholders — Elected to House of Representatives — Life and 
Friends in Washington. 

CHAPTER III 50 

Elected to Senate — Chairman of Committee on Claims — Regent of Smith- 
sonian Institute — Excitement Throughout the States Caused by Efforts to 
Exclude Slavery from Oregon — Speech on Oregon Bill — Speech Oppos- 
ing Creation of Department of Interior — House of Representatives — 
Financial Condition of the Country — Separated from Administration — 
Dropped by Democratic Party in Next Election — Extract from Speech — 
Extract from President's Message — Letter to a Constituent. 

CHAPTER IV 71 

Compromise of 1850 — Mr. Calhoun's Prophecy — Mr. Mason Member of 
Committee of Thirteen— He Dissents from Report of Committee — The 
Union Party and the Secessionists. Reply to Invitation to Address Mass- 
meeting at Newmarket. California Admitted into Union — Protest of 
Southern Senators — Fugitive Slave Law — Extract from Diary — Re-elected 
to Senate — Chairman of Committee on Foreign Relations — New England 
Fisheries. 

CHAPTER V 94 

Kossuth — Speech on Intervention and Monroe Doctrine — Know-Nothing 
Party — President Pierce and His Cabinet — Kansas-Nebraska Act — Kansas 
Aid Society — Senator Sumner's Speech and Mr. Mason's Reply — Mr. 
Sumner Punished by Mr. Brooks. 



CHAPTER VI 117 

Letter to Mr. Davis — Letter Declining Invitation to Dinner Given to Elec- 
toral College — Tribute to Memory of Hon. A P. Butler — Extract from 
Richmond j5"«^«/r^r— Re-elected to Senate — Visit to Bunker Hill and to 
Boston— "Kansas Letter" — Speech on Admission of Kansas — Speech in 
Opposition to Pacific Railroad — Protest Against Bill Donating Public 
Lands to States that Provide Colleges for Benefit of Agriculture and the 
Mechanical Arts — John Brown Raid. 

CHAPTER VII 150 

Disintegration of Democratic Party in i860 — Extract from Speech Made in 
Senate — Mr. Seward's Speech in Boston — Letter to Richmond Enquirer — 
Conference of States Proposed by Virginia — Extracts from President 
Buchanan's Message and from Mr. Sickles' Speech — Mr. Mason's Re- 
marks on Mr. Powell's Resolutions — Remarks on Withdrawal of Six 
Senators — Letter to His Daughter — Letter to the People of Virginia — 
Remarks on Peace Conference— Letters from Senators Chandler and 
Bingham — Petitions to Congress from the People of Northern States — 
Remarks on Resolution to Expel Senator Wigfall, of Texas. 

CHAPTER VIII 191 

Secession of Virginia— Winchester a Military Camp — Seizure of Harper's 
Ferry— Summer of 1861 in Winchester — Appointed Commissioner to Eng- 
land — Letters from Charleston, from the San Jacinto, and from Port War- 
ren — His Own Account of His Capture and Imprisonment — Release from 
Fort Warren and Arrival in London. 

CHAPTER IX. . . . 247 

Instruction from State Department — Dispatch from Richmond About the 
British Vessels "Bruce" and "Napier," and Denying Report the Confede- 
rate States Government Had Prohibited Export of Cotton to Neutrals — 
Letter from Mr. Mason to Mr. Hunter -English Sympathy with South — 
Views of Members of Parliament on Blockade and Recognition — Inter- 
view with Earl Russell — Mr. Lindsay's Interview with the Emperor — Visit 
of M. Mercier to Richmond a Mystery — Cotton Famine — Educated Classes 
in England Favor the South — Private Letters. 

CHAPTER X 282 

Dispatch from Richmond Tells of Victory at Hampton Roads — Inaugura- 
tion of Permanent Government Cabinet — Fall of Forts Fisher and Don- 
elson — General Buckner Captured — Reverses at Nashville, Columbus, 
Roanoke Island — Capture of Newbern and Washington, in North Caro- 
lina — Feeling of Southern People — hesolution of Congress Never to Re- 
enter Union— Battle in Arkansas — Generals McCuUoh and Mcintosh 
Killed — Inefficiency of Blockade — Mr. De Leon's Mission — Recognition 
Would End the War — Victory at Shiloh— General A. S. Johnston 
Killed — Fall of Island No. 10 — New Orleans Taken — General B. F. But- 
ler — Visit of M. Mercier to Richmond — Loss of Fort Pillow, Memphis 
and Western Tennessee -General Bragg— Lieutenant Commander Brown — 
General Jackson in Valley of Virginia— Battle of Seven Pines — General 
J. E. Johnston Wounded — General Lee in Command — Battles at Rich- 
mond and Manassas— Lee Enters Maryland — Takes Harper's Ferry — 
Battle at Sharpsburg — General Loring's Success in West Virginia — Gen- 
eral Pope's Orders — Letters from Earl Shaftsbury. 



CHAPTER XI 310 

Mr. De Leon Arrives in London — Emperor Ready and Anxious for Recog- 
nition; Has Pressed It Upon England— Mr. Slidell Makes Formal De- 
mand for Recognition — Mr. Mason Makes Similar Demand of Earl Rus- 
sell, which is Refused — Russell Declines Interview— Correspondence with 
Earl Russell— Russell's Position Based on Seward's Report of Disaffec- 
tion in South--Discourtesy of Earl Russell— Protest Against England's 
Position on Blockade —Views of President Davis on the Attitude of the 
British Ministry — British Cabinet Not Considered a Fair Exponent of 
the Sentiments and Opinions of the British Nation — President Deems it 
Proper Mr. Mason Should Remain at His Post but Should Refrain from 
Further Communication with Earl Russell Unless it Should be Invited. 

CHAPTER XII 335 

Mr. G. N. Saunders— Commander Sinclair— Suggested that Money Could 
be Commanded by Use of Obligation for Delivery of Cotton by the Gov- 
ernment—Emperor Strong for Recognition— England's Scant Courtesy 
and French Polished Civility— Private Memoranda Tells of English Sym- 
pathy and Interest, and also of Hospitality and Kindness Extended to 
Him— Acting-Midshipman Andrews, in Command of the Sumter, Killed 
by Master's-Mate Hester— English Scheme to Raise Money on Cotton — 
French Proposal for Loan — Line of Steamships Between Europe and Con- 
federacy—Agreement with Erlanger & Co. — Emancipation Proclamation 
Met with General Contempt and Derision— Cotton Famine Fearful— The 
Cruiser "Sumter" Sold to a British House— English Property Taken by 
the "Alabama" and Earl Russell's Position Thereon. 

CHAPTER XIII 359 

Brilliant Success of Confederate Loan— England Apprehends Trouble with 
United States— Correspondence with Earl Russell About Blockade— De- 
partment Sends Design of the Confederate Flag — Description of Seal for 
Confederate States, with Instructions to Have it Made in England— Mr. 
McCrea has Management of Loan— Extracts from Private Letters — Fed- 
eral Recruiting in Ireland— Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Lindsay Visit the Em- 
peror — Minutes of Their Conversation. 

CHAPTER XIV 393 

Dispatch from Richmond Speaks of Future Commerce with Confederate 
States— Of Correspondence Between France, England, and Russia Re- 
garding an Armistice— Private Letter— Favorable Effect in England of 
Southern Victories— Politics in the North— Parties in Parliament— Private 
Letter— Conversation with Lord Donoughmore— Department Refutes 
Northern Reports Regarding Re-opening the Slave Trade — Cotton Cer- 
tificates from the Treasury the True Mode of Raising Money— List of 
U. S. Vessels Destroyedby Confederates— Blockade Raised at Charleston, 
Galveston, and Sabine Pass— England Determined to Run No Risk of 
Trouble with United States. 

CHAPTER XV 426 

Statue of Stonewall Jackson— Dismissal of Both Consul Moore and Mr. 
Cridland— State of Alabama Pays Interest to English Creditors— Prisoner 
Hester- Reverses at Home Affect Loan— Success of Blockade Runners- 
Suggestion that Government Take Exclusive Control of Export of Cotton 
— Recall from London — Private Letter from Mr. Benjamin— Note to Earl 
Russell— Unofficial Letter to Mr. Davis— Earl Russell's Reply to Mr. 
Mason's Note- Appointment of "Commissioner on the Continent"— Let- 
ter to Mrs. Mason. 



Vlll 

CHAPTER XVI 460 

Makes Short Visit to London in Private Capacity — Southern Independence 
Association of London — Society for Promoting Cessation of Hostilities in 
America — Anti-Slavery Sentiment in England — Seizure of Tuscaloosa — 
Seal to be Made of Silver — Instructions for New Commission — President 
gives Fuller Discretion as to Residence — Maximilian Visits Emperor — 
His Policy Towards Confederacy Changed after Reaching Paris — Release 
of Tuscaloosa — Mr. Seward admits the "Mallory Report" was a Forgery. 

CHAPTER XVII 491 

Letter to Mrs. Mason — Case of the " Gerrity " — Additional Forgery by the 
United States Government — Counsel Provided for Men of the " Gerrity " — 
Court of Queen's Bench Decide "It was not Piracy" — Men Released — 
Mr. Lindsay's Motion Looking to Mediation — Mr. Lindsay Proposes In- 
terview with Lord Palmerston— Mr. Mason Declines it Unless Invited by 
Lord Palmerston — Lord Palmerston Expresses Opinion that South Could 
not be Subjugated — Mr. M. Visits London as a "Private Gentleman" in 
Response to the Request of Friends of the Confederacy that He Would 
Come to Their Aid — Lord Russell Expresses Opinion North Could not 
Overcome South, and People of North were Getting Alive to that Fact — 
Mr. D' Israeli says in Case of Success in Battles at Richmond, He Would 
Bring a Motion of Like Character With Mr. Lindsay's — Popular Senti- 
ment in England Strongly With vSouth — Letters to Mrs. Mason — Seal sent 
by Lieutenant Chapman — Fight Between the Alabama and the Kearsage — 
Public Dinner Tendered Captain Semmes in London — All Europe Filled 
with the Fame of Lee, Beauregard, and Johnston— Interview with Lord 
Palmerston — Lieutenant Chapman Delivers Seal of Secretary of State, 
but Boxes Containing Irop-press, Wax, Etc., Lost — Private Letters — 
Bazaar In Liverpool, to Relieve Wants of Southern Prisoners Confined in 
the North. 

CHAPTER XVIII 516 

Mission of Messrs. Jacques and Gilmore to Richmond— St. Alban's Raid — 
Letter from Bennet Young — Criticism by "Historicus" of Instructions 
from Department to Cruisers In Regard to Neutral Property — Morning 
Post Condemns Position Taken by "Historicus" — " Historicus" Said to 
be Mr. Vernon Harcourt — Post Said to be Lord Palmerston's Organ — 
Rumors of Purpose to Increase Southern Army by Arming the Slaves 
Attracts Favorable Attention in England — Correspondence With Mr. 
Coolidge, of Boston, Relating to Treatment of Northern Soldiers in 
Southern Prisons. 

CHAPTER XIX 540 

Expectation of Peace Aroused in England by Reports from North — 
Dispatch from Department on "Our Foreign Relations " -Are the West- 
ern Powers of Europe Determined Never to Recognize Confederate States 
Until United States Assents? — Vindication of Right to S elf-Government 
is Sole Object of War — Prisoners in St. Alban's Case Released — Earl Rus- 
sell's Communication to Commissioners, and their Reply — Would Any 
Concessions Regarding Slavery Secure Recognition? — Mr. Mason's Inter- 
view With Lord Palmerston on this Subject— His Conversation with Lord 
Donoughmore — Letter to Col. Mann — Dispatch of May ist — Assassina- 
tion of Lincoln — Stanton's Dispatch to Adams — Mason's Denial of Stan- 
ton's Charge of Confederate Complicity — Proclamation of President John- 



IX 

CHAPTER XX 568 

Anxiety and Trouble About Richmond — " No Fear or Doubt as to Result " 
— Passage Engaged to Canada — Departure Delayed by Political Considera- 
tions — " What is to be the Future of the South?" — Visit to Sir Frederick 
Pollock — Contributions to Baltimore Bazaar — President Johnson's Policy — 
Probable Emigration of Young Men from the South — War Struck the 
Blow Which Must Eventually Sever North and South — Arrival in Mon- 
treal—Visits from Mr. Davis and Others — Return to Virginia — Letter from 
Mr. Hunter Speaks of Condition of South — Letters from Hunter and 
Davis Relatfe Hampton Roads Conference — Lincoln's Account of It — 
Failure of Mr. Mason's Health — His Death. 



Life of James Murray Mason. 



CHAPTER I. 

Lineage — George Mason of Gunston — Gen. John Mason — Mrs. John Mason — 
Life of Matron at that Day — Birth of James M. Mason — Incidents During 
War of 1812 — The Chew Family — Early Life in Winchester — The Young 
Lawyer and His Compeers as Described by Hon. H. A. Wise — Marries 
Eliza M. Chew — Early Married Life Described in Mrs. Mason's Letters. 

James Murray Mason, whose life and work this volume 
is intended to trace, was descended from the Masons of Strat- 
ford-Upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England. 

The first one of the family who came to America was 
Colonel George Mason, of Staffordshire, England, who had 
been a member of Parliament in the reign of Charles I., and 
who had been sternly opposed to the corrupt and arbitrary 
practices of the King, although he was a devoted adherent of 
the Crown as part of the English Government under the Con- 
stitution. 

After the execution of Charles I., Colonel Mason com- 
manded a regiment of cavalry in the Royal Army at the battle 
of Worcester, and being forced by that disastrous defeat to 
seek safety in disguise and concealment, he left England for 
the Colony of Virginia. In the same year, 1651, he landed at 
Norfolk, went up the Potomac River and established a plantation 
at Acohick Creek, near Pasbitancy, then in Westmoreland 
County, afterwards in Stafford County. In the year 1675, 
Stafford was carved out of Westmoreland, and was named by 
Colonel Mason in remembrance of his native shire in England. 

Tradition says he had possessed ample fortune in England, 
but lost everything when he came to Virginia ; be that as it may, 
* there is abundant evidence of his having obtained, in 1655, ^ 
patent for a considerable tract of land, and of his having been 



*See Miss Rowland's " Life of George Mason." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



selected to fill many offices of trust and responsibility in his new 
home ; among them that of a member of the House of Burgesses 
from Stafford County. 

Stafford Court House, with all of its records, was burned by 
the Federal troops during the War of 1861-65, ^^^ i" numerous 
other places the records of the courts, as well as large numbers 
of old family papers, were destroyed or captured by the invading 
armies. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to fix with accuracy 
the dates of many events in the early history of Virginia, but 
Miss Rowland has given, in her " Life of George Mason of 
Gunston," the results of her thorough search for, and careful 
examination of, all possible sources of information concerning 
these old records. She states that Colonel George Mason, the 
first of his name in Virginia, held the offices of Sheriff of Stafford 
County, Clerk of the Court, and also that of Lieutenant of Staf- 
ford County. 

Accounts differ as to whether he married in America, or 
whether his wife and family followed him from England. It is, 
however, certain that his eldest son was named George, and that 
he, the second of the name in Virginia, married Mary Fowke, 
daughter of Gerard Fowke, of Stafford County, Virginia, and 
granddaughter of Roger Fowke, of Gunston Hall, Stafford- 
shire, England. It is said that Gerard Fowke came to Virginia 
about the same time with Colonel Mason, and from the same 
neighborhood in England; their families thus renewed in this 
country the intimacies that had united them at home. 

The name "George" was transmitted in a direct line through 
the eldest son for many generations, and the family home seems 
to have been inherited with the name. 

Miss Rowland's book quotes from several curious old 
papers to show that both the second and the third George 
Mason held, in their turn, all the offices that have been spoken 
of as having been filled by their predecessor, George Mason, the 
emigrant. The scope of the present volume does not admit of 
further detail regarding these bygone days, attractive though 
they may be. It must suffice to say there are original documents, 
still preserved, and now in the possession of the writer, that 
seem to confirm Miss Rowland's opinion that the chief positions 
of trust and responsibility in Stafford County were filled for 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



three successive generations by three George Masons, father, 
son, and grandson. One of these documents is the Commission 
given by Alexander Spottswood, " His Majesty's Lieutenant 
Governor and Vice-Admiral of his Colony of Virginia and Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the same Dominion, to ' Colonel George 
Mason,' appointing him to be Lieutenant of the County of Staf- 
ford, and Chief Commander of all His Majesty's Militia, Horse 
and Foot, in the said County of Stafford." It is dated Williams- 
burgh, the second day of July, 171 9. 

There is also preserved an old letter, which, with the Bur- 
gess Ticket that accompanied it, is interesting in itself, apart from 
the testimony it bears to the estimation in which Mr. Mason was 
held abroad as well as at home. It is dated Glascow, March 3d, 
1720, and reads as follows : " Having received certain Infor- 
mation of the Many Extraordinary Favours You have done to 
our Merchants or their agents in Virginia, we thought ourselves 
obliged in the name of our City to acknowledge your goodness, 
in Testimony thereof we do send You the Compliments of the 
City, A Burgess Ticket by which You are entitled to all the 
Rights, Privileges and Immunities of a Burgess or Citizen of 
Glascow. Hitherto your Favors to our People have flowed 
from Meer Motives of Hospitality. In time to come you will 
if Possible Multiply your Goodness towards them, not only as 
Strangers, but also as Fellow-Citizens with yourself. We wish 
you all Happiness and Prosperity and do most Earnestly recom- 
mend You to the Protection of the Almighty. 

"THOS. THOMSON, Dn. Gild. . 

in absence of J. A. Peady. 

" JOHN BOWMAN, Provost. 

" PETER MURDOCK, Baillie. 

" JOHN ORR, Baillie. 

" STEPHEN CROWFORD, Baillie. 

" To Honable. George Mason^ Esqr. 
" Collonll. in Stafford County, 

" Pottomack River, Virginia." 

The George Mason referred to in these papers was the 
great-grandfather of James Murray Mason. He married a 
daughter of Stevens Thompson, Esqr., of Middle Temple, an 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



English gentleman who came to Virginia as Attorney-General 
of the Colony in the reign of Queen Anne. The eldest son of 
this marriage was the Colonel George Mason who lived during 
the eventful period of the Revolution, and who took an impor- 
tant share in the labors and responsibilities that devolved upon 
the men of that day. 

The Bill of Rights and the First Constitution of Virginia 
remain as legacies from him to succeeding generations. He 
inherited the home estate of " Doeg Neck," the name of which, 
after building a new mansion, he changed to Gunston Hall, in 
memory of the seat of his maternal ancestry in Staffordshire, 
England ; there he lived from his birth to his death, and there 
he is buried. 

The following description of his home and of his mode of life 
is copied from an unfinished memoir begun by his grandson, 
James Murray Mason : 

" Gunston Hall in ' Doeg Neck ' embraced a tract of 6,000 
acres of land on the Potomac River about 20 miles below Alex- 
andria, Virginia. The Potomac, by a majestic curve, forms its 
boundary on the south and east for some five miles, while on the 
east and west it is bounded respectively by the Pohick and Occo- 
quan rivers, confluents of the Potomac. It is thus peninsular in 
form and secluded in position. The mansion is in view from the 
river, from which it is distant about half a mile, and it may be 
seen on the highest land about six miles below Mount Vernon. 

" Of the early education of George Mason we are un- 
informed. The condition in life, however, of his parents will 
warrant, what his subsequent career fully proves, that he was 
thoroughly educated and trained to habits of study and intellec- 
tual pursuits. The distinguishing trait of his mind, as always 
ascribed to him by those associated with him in the trying scenes 
of the Revolution, was sagacity, attended by that solidity of 
thought and soundness of judgment which make up human wis- 
dom. In the conduct of affairs he was looked to and relied upon 
as a wise man. Perhaps no condition in life was better fitted to 
strengthen and mature the mind in all the attributes of most 
value in times of trial, wisdom, self-reliance and resolution. 

" A tobacco planter whose crops were exported direct to 
Europe and his supplies imported direct from thence, ships out- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



ward and homeward bound stopping for the purpose at the Gun- 
ston landing, he dwelt in seclusion, the lord of all he surveyed; 
with a large retinue of laborers obedient to his will, his estates, 
productive under his care, and yielding the most ample returns, 
gave him every resource that wealth could command. He 
knew none of the narrow and corroding cares of the working- 
day world ; and an ample library enabled him to draw at pleasure 
upon the treasures of past ages. 

" He married Anne Eilbeck, daughter of William Eilbeck, 
of Charles County, Maryland, and lived in quiet retirement, tak- 
ing no part in public affairs, except in his own county, so far as 
there is any record, prior to the proceedings in Virginia and the 
other colonies to which the Stamp Act gave rise. After the 
right was asserted to legislate for the colonies in ' all cases 
whatsoever,' George Mason wrote, in 1773, a tract with the 
modest title : ' Extracts from the Virginia Charters, with some 
remarks on them.' This paper seems to have been intended as 
an exponent of Colonial Rights under the Charters, and it served 
as a rich mine of authority in the controversy then ■ arising 
between the Crown and its colonial subjects. 

"As early as 1774 a meeting of the Freeholders and other 
inhabitants of the county of Fairfax, Virginia, was held in the 
town of Alexandria for the purpose of taking into consideration 
the state of the Colony, etc. The resolutions there adopted were 
drawn up by George Mason. They laid broadly the foundations 
on which the controversies rested between the colonies and the 
mother country, and indicated, in their recommendations, the 
course best to be pursued to vindicate the rights of the colo- 
nies. It will be seen that the author of these resolutions recom- 
mended that a congress should be appointed to consist of depu- 
ties from all the colonies ; the beginning of that congress which 
brought the colonies together, and which carried them success- 
fully through all the storms and trials of the Revolution. The 
resolutions adopted at this meeting were presented to the Vir- 
ginia Convention, which, a few weeks later, assembled at Wil- 
liamsburgh, and their recommendations were adopted; deputies 
were appointed to the Continental Congress to be held at Phila- 
delphia, and an association was formed to carry into effect 
throughout the State the resolutions of the Fairfax Meeting 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



relating to non-importation from Great Britain. Thus, from the 
determined and energetic councils of George Mason, a private 
citizen, and in the shades of private life, sprung the concerted 
organization in all the colonies, which, developing their strength 
and fully committing them to final resistance, paved the way to 
independence. 

" George Washington having been selected by the Virginia 
Convention as deputy to the Continental Congress, Colonel ~ 
Mason was chosen by the people of Fairfax to take his place in. 
the Virginia Convention, and this is the first time, so far as can 
be ascertained at this day, that he engaged in the public service, 
although he had frequently declined such service ; he continued, 
however, a member of the Convention at Williamsburgh, and of 
the subsequent General Assembly until the close of the war. As 
a member of the Convention at Williamsburgh he wrote the ' Bill 
of Rights,' and the ' First Constitution of Virginia.' The 
original draft of the 'Bill of Rights ' is still preserved in the 
State Library at the Capitol in Richmond. On the margin of 
that draft is written, and also in the handwriting of its author: 
' This declaration of rights was the first written in America ; it 
received few alterations or additions in the convention (some of 
them not for the better), and was afterwards closely imitated by 
the other States.' 

" As a member of the Convention of 1787, in Philadelphia, 
)> Colonel Mason voted against the Federal Constitution as it was 
there framed, and refused to sign it on the ground that the 
powers of the Federal Government were not sufficiently re- 
stricted, nor the reserved rights of the respective States suffi- 
ciently guarded, and on his return home he bent his whole 
strength to prevent its ratification by Virginia. 

" Like most of his contemporaries, he was careful and 
minute in the management of his private affairs. His books, 
all kept in his own hand, show detailed accounts with all who 
were in his employ, embracing overseers, agents, and others. 

" His domestic habits, as described by members of his imme- 
diate family, were simple and unostentatious, though attended 
with all the abundance of large possessions, and supplied with 
the comforts and luxuries within the reach of an ample fortune. 
His mornings at Gunston were generally spent in reading or 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j 



writing in his library ; at midday he mounted his horse, and tak- 
ing a gun, usually a rifle, and attended by a servant and his dog, 
visited his plantations, looking minutely and carefully into their 
operations. From these excursions he generally returned bring- 
ing game he had shot. The afternoons and evenings were 
devoted to his family and to society. 

" In the year 1766, then about 40 years of age, he thus 
speaks of himself in a letter to The Public Ledger in London, 
published in that paper over the signature of a ' Virginia 
Planter ' : ' These are the sentiments of a man who spends 
most of his time in retirement, and who has seldom meddled in 
public afifairs ; who enjoys a modest but independent fortune, 
and who, content with the blessings of a private station, equally 
disregards the smiles and frowns of the great.' " 

It would be a pleasant task to give fuller and more detailed 
accounts of these Virginians of the last century; but it is the 
purpose of the present volume to tell of more recent times. 
What has been said of the earlier generations has been told 
with the same idea with which an artist bestows special care on 
the background of a picture in order to bring out the portrait in 
clear and living color; or, with the idea so happily expressed 
by Doctor Wendell Holmes, who, when asked when the educa- 
tion of a boy should commence, replied : " I think about a hun- 
dred years before the child is born." 

Colonel George Mason, of Gunston, had three daughters 
and five sons ; this narrative can, however, refer only to John, 
the fourth son, who was the father of James Murray Mason. 
Of the early associations of John Mason and of his birthplace, 
Gunston, some account has already been given. It must suf- 
fice to say that, although he was so unfortunate as to lose his 
mother at the early age of five years, yet the devotion to the 
home of his childhood, and the reverential admiration and 
respect for his father, that frequently found expression during 
his life, as well as in the manuscripts discovered among his 
papers after his death, bear testimony to the character of the 
parent, and the home that exerted so strong an influence upon 
his own life, and, through him, upon his children. 

His education, begun under private tutors at home, and 
continued at schools in Virginia and in Maryland, was completed 



8 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

in France, where he was sent soon after the close of the Revolu- 
tion, and where he remained some years, actively engaged in 
business as a merchant, owning several vessels, and sending 
large cargoes to other ports, as well as to this country, in ex- 
change for those received. 

v^ After his return home, he married Miss Anna Maria Mur- 

ray, daughter of Doctor James Murray, of Annapolis, Mary- 
land, and continued for some years actively engaged in mercan- 
tile pursuits, holding, at different times, positions of trust and 
responsibility ; among them, the office of " Superintendent of 
Indian Trade," to which he was appointed by President Jeffer- 
son in the year 1807, and that of " Commissary General of 
Prisoners," which he held during the War of 1812. This 
office gave him the title of " General," and he was usually known 
as General Mason. 

A little incident connected with this time is of interest as 
evincing the kindly nature of the boy, James, who frequently 
accompanied his father on his visits to look after the welfare of 
the prisoners. The pale face and attenuated figure of a young 
British officer attracted the attention and excited the sympathy 
of young Mason, who reported to his mother the story of the 
sick prisoner and begged she would have some delicacies pre- 
pared, such as might tempt the appeti^*^ of an invalid. The 
request was granted, and the British officer was kept well sup- 
plied with tempting food and attractive books that were carried 
to him by the American schoolboy. Nearly fifty years after- 
wards, when Mr. Mason was in London as the representative of 
the Confederate States, his acquaintance was sought by an 
EngHshman of high position, who identified himself as having 
been visited, fed and comforted by him when he had been sick 
and in prison in America, and told the story to the guests 
assembled at the house of one of the nobility, where they had 
been invited to meet the Commissioner from the Confederate 
States. 

General John Mason inherited from his father a handsome 
estate in Fairfax County, Virginia, lying on the Potomac 
River, and including an island in the river, opposite Washing- 

- ton, known as Analostan Island, where he made his residence 
during a portion of every year, spending the summers on the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" Island," and the winters in Georgetown or Alexandria, and 
entertaining always and everywhere with the true Virginia hos- 
pitality that made his home the centre of attraction for a widely 
extended circle. Not only was it a favorite resort for the 
young, the gay and the fashionable, but here the stranger, the 
poor and the orphan ever found a cordial welcome awaiting 
them ; and here, too, were to be found kind hearts ever as ready 
to soothe and sympathize in times of trouble, as to rejoice and 
make merry with the light-hearted and the happy. 

The domestic life of a matron of that day demanded a degree 
of self-discipline, self-reliance, and sound judgment far greater 
than is generally required of the women of to-day, whose house- 
holds are on a much smaller scale than was possible, when the 
" modern improvements," designed to save labor, were all 
unknown; when the mistress presided over an establishment 
where her own servants prepared all that is now ordered from 
the caterer or the confectioner: where the sheep were raised 
and sheared, the wool spun and woven into the cloth required 
for the servants' clothing, and often much of that used for 
the children ; where the skins were tanned, and the shoes were 
made; and when all this was done by the negroes who were her 
slaves, and consequently dependent upon her for care and kind- 
ness in infancy, in old, age, and in sickness. Verily, they took 
no care for themselves, but were as irresponsible as children. 
It was the mistress who was expected to control and train 
them in the various duties of domestic service, and it was to her 
they came for advice and sympathy when in trouble. Such 
cares and responsibilities, added to those always devolving upon 
the mother of a large family, were well calculated to call into 
exercise and to full development all the powers of head and 
heart. This was certainly the case with Mrs. Mason, and 
nobly did she discharge her many duties as wife, mother, mis- 
tress, friend, and hostess. 

It was at his father's house in Georgetown that James ''^' 
Murray Mason was born on November 3d, 1798. Of his child- 
hood there is little of interest to record, further than that it was 
spent amid the associations and under the circumstances above 
described. He was one of ten children, six sons and four 
daughters, all of whom lived to become men and women, and all 



jQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



of whom loved in later life to talk of the happy days spent in 
^ Georgetown and on the " Island." They must indeed have been 
as happy and as free from care as it was possible for indulgent 
parents possessed of large wealth to have made them ; but they 
were, at the same time, trained to habits of ready obedience and 
of never failing respect, so much so, that to the end of their lives, 
every one of the sons and daughters would quote the opinions 
of " My Father," or " My Mother," as might have been done 
in childhood when, as a matter of course, those opinions were 
admitted to be final and infallible. 

James M. Mason attended the school in Georgetown during 
his childhood, and was afterwards sent to Philadelphia, where, 
in 1815, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, taking his 
Bachelor's Degree in 181 8. The next year he studied law at 
William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia; and 
then spent one winter in Richmond, Virginia, reading law in the 
office of Mr. Benjamin Watkins Leigh. In the summer of 1820 
he opened his office and offered for practice in the town of 
Winchester, Virginia. 

During the first few years spent in Philadelphia he lived 
in the family and under the care of Commodore Murray, to 
whom he was nearly related through his mother, and in whose 
house he enjoyed many social advantages that are not always 
within the reach of students at college. He afterwards boarded 
in a French family for the purpose of acquiring fluency in speak- 
ing the French language. It was, however, in Commodore 
Murray's home that began the romance of his life, for it was there 
he first saw Miss Eliza Margaretta Chew; there he formed the 
attachment that grew with his growth, and strengthened with 
his strength, and there he acquired, in his boyhood, the habit, 
never afterwards lost, but continued to his last day, of confiding 
to Eliza Chew all of his hopes and aspirations, consulting her 
judgment in every question that arose, seeking her advice and 
sympathy in all the perplexities and troubles of his life, and 
claiming her congratulations and commendation in every success 
that he achieved. Here he must be left for a time while the 
reader is introduced to some of the ancestors of this Miss Chew, 
who exercised so strong an influence over the man to whom she 
afterwards gave herself, with all her powers of mind and heart. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jj 

and to whom she proved a helpmeet in the fullest and best sense 
of the term : 

*" The family of Chew, like that of the Masons, came from 
England. Their first American ancestor was, it is said, John 
Chew, who came from England to Virginia prior to 1624, settled 
at * James Citie,' and was, subsequently, a member of the 
Assembly. The first one, however, of whom the writer has un- 
questioned information was Samuel Chew, who was residing in 
Maryland, at Herring Bay, as early as 1656. There is reason 
to believe that he was the son of John Chew. It is known that 
he became Judge of the High Provincial Court and Court of 
Chancery, and was for some years a member of the Upper 
House of the Legislature. 

" He married Anne Ayres, only daughter of William Ayres, 
and had seven sons and two daughters. His fifth son, Benjamin, 
married Elizabeth Benson, and had three daughters and one son, 
to whom he gave the name of Samuel. This second Samuel 
Chew practiced medicine, and was known as Doctor Samuel 
Chew, of Maidstone, an estate near Annapolis. Afterwards he 
removed to the " Lower Counties on the Delaware," and, still 
later, was appointed Chief Justice of New Castle, Kent and 
Sussex counties. He had only one son, Benjamin. To this 
boy he gave every possible advantage of education, placing 
him, for a time, under the tuition of Andrew Hamilton, the 
Councillor, and after the death of Mr. Hamilton, sending him 
to England, where he concluded his studies at the Middle 
Temple. 

" After the death of Chief Justice Chew, young Benjamin 
Chew returned to America, and in September, 1746, was admitted 
an attorney of the Supreme Court of the Province of Penn- 
sylvania. He removed to Philadelphia about 1754, and about the 
year 1761, he built his country seat, called Cliveden, on the out- 
skirts of Germantown. 

" The year 1755 brought to him marked recognition of his 
ability; for, although he had so recently become a resident in 
Pennsylvania, he was made Attorney-General of the Province, 
Recorder of the city of Philadelphia, and a member of the Gov- 
ernor's Council. In 1765 he was made Register-General of the 
*Quoted from " Provincial Councillors of Pennsylvania," by J. P. Keith. 



12 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

Province, and in 1774 he was appointed Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court. This dignity imposed undeserved sufferings 
upon him during the Revolutionary War, which began so soon 
afterwards, sufferings which were merely the result of his 
political importance, and not designed as punishment for obnox- 
ious acts. By the Declaration of Independence all Chew's 
ofificial positions fell with the royal authority from which they 
were derived; and in August, 1777, he, with others who had 
held office under the Crown, was arrested, and during the next 
ten months was an exile from his home. 

" At the battle of Germantown his country home, Cliveden, 
was occupied by a detachment of British troops, who found it 
a sufficient stronghold to resist the cannonading of the Ameri- 
cans ; but its doors and windows were shattered, its floors 
stained with blood, and the whole place made desolate. He was, 
however, soon given a position of trust and responsibility under 
the new government, for he was appointed, in October, 1791, 
' Judge and President of the High Court of Errors and Appeals 
of the State of Pennsylvania.' He held this position until the 
abolition of the court in 1808." 

His first wife was Mary, daughter of John Galloway, who 
died in 1755, leaving five daughters, but no son. His second 
wife, Elizabeth Oswald, left six daughters and one son, Benjamin 
Chew, Jr., who graduated at the College of Philadelphia, studied 
law at the Middle Temple, London, and on his return home 
became a member of the Philadelphia Bar. 

He is described as having been a highly educated and unu- 
sually handsome young man, of ample fortune, and about 
twenty-six or seven years of age when he visited Annapolis, 
and became a frequent visitor at the house of Doctor James 
Murray. There he probably met the John Mason, before men- 
tioned, who, a few years later, wooed, won, and wedded Anna 
Maria Murray, one of the daughters of the hospitable doctor. 
Ther« he certainly met Katharine Banning, the young cousin of 
Mrs. Murray, and the only child of Mr. Anthony Banning, of 
West River, Maryland. He was, at once, captivated by her 
beauty and by her unaffected, simple, and ingenuous manner. 
The story as told by him to his children might grace the pages 
of a novel. Suffice it to say here. Miss Banning became Mrs. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jj 

Benjamin Chew, of Philadelphia, and the mistress of Cliveden, 
the favorite summer resort of the Chew family during their 
early married life, and the home of Mr. and Mrs. Chew in their 
old age. 

Here their daughter, Elizabeth Margaretta Chew, was bom 
on November i8th, 1798, just fifteen days after James Murray 
Mason first saw the light in his father's house in Georgetown, 
D. C, and in this same house was spent many of the Saturdays 
and other holidays of the Virginia schoolboy, who was glad to 
accept the frequent invitations of the Young Chews, his school- 
mates; invitations made the more attractive by the fact that he 
was thus brought into constant intercourse with their sister. It 
ir true that she, being the eldest, and for some time the only 
daughter, had matured and ripened into womanhood at an early 
age, and was, at sixteen, accustomed to the society of men many 
years her seniors; still it was evident that young Mason was 
preferred to all other suitors and, rejecting them, she remained 
true to him during the years that passed while he completed his 
course at the University of Pennsylvania, studied law at Wil- 
liam and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia, spent a winter 
in the law ofHce of Mr. Benjamin Watkins Leigh in Richmond, 
Virginia, gained admission to the Bar, established himself in the 
town of Winchester, Virginia, and provided there a home for 
his bride in the midst of friends who were ready to extend to her 
the warm-hearted hospitality and kindness always characteristic 
of that town. 

In later life, Mr. Mason was fond of recalling the circum- 
stances attending his first arrival in Winchester on an afternoon 
in June, 1820, when, having made the journey on horseback, 
riding on his saddle-bags, according to the custom of the time, 
he came from his father's house, on the Island, to the town he 
had chosen for his future home, but where he was then entirely a 
stranger. Stopping before the " Tavern," he found a group of 
young men sitting in chairs placed in the street around the 
door, discussing the news of the day. The landlord, minus his 
coat, was in their midst, joining freely in the talk with the air 
of one accustomed to lay down the law on all subjects for the 
benefit of his younger townsmen. The unusual appearance of a 
stranger caused a pause in the conversation, and brought "Mine 



J. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

Host" to the front. A short time sufficed to have both horse 
and rider kindly cared for and estabHshed in their new quarters^ 
and the traveler, having been introduced by his landlord to the 
assembled party, was invited to join the group ; and on this 
first afternoon, began more than one of the friendships that 
lasted throughout his life and grew warmer and stronger as 
years rolled by. 

The absence of all form and ceremony from the village life- 
of Winchester, at that day, must have appeared in strong con- 
trast to the usages that prevailed in Philadelphia and Wash- 
ington, to which young Mason had been accustomed ; it is, how- 
ever, evident that he had the good sense and good feeling rightly 
to appreciate the sterling worth of the people among whom he 
had come to make his home, and, to his last day, he never 
failed to acknowledge the marked kindness and consideration 
that was extended to him from the first moment of his arrival 
in Winchester. In old age his eyes filled and his voice faltered 
whenever allusion was made to those happy days, or to the dear 
friends of his early manhood in Winchester. 

These early days differed little from the usual experience of 
young lawyers. Governor Henry A. Wise, in an article that 
appeared in several of the newspapers soon after Mr. Mason's 
death, said, in speaking of him : " He aspired to political pre- 
ferment from the first of his career. He was not, however, 
neglectful of his profession, was diligent in its practice, and the 
bench and bar of Winchester and surrounding circuits, then, 
even more than since, were distinguished for eminent lawyers, 
such as Henry St. George Tucker, Alfred H. Powell, and John 
R. Cooke, and a younger tier of professional devotees, such as 
the two Marshalls, the Conrads, and Moses Hunter, the best wit 
of them all. 

" Mr. Mason took a high rank among them at the Bar ; but 
always looked to politics for his field of distinction; yet he was 
no demagogue, and spurned the ' ad captandum ' of the vulgar 
electioneerer. 

" His integrity was sterling — exact to truth ; his firmness 
was rocklike ; his sense of. honor was of the highest tone, and 
his every word and action were guided by a discretion always 
sound and always on guard. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j. 



" A man thus stamped with the seal of nobleness could not 
fail to attract the homage of those around him, or to be aflforded 
the opportunities for the aspirations he indulged. Honest, he 
was trusted; discreet, he was relied on to do justice and judg- 
ment ; and brave, all felt assured that he could make ' the sac- 
rifice ' when called on. He did nobly make it at the last 
extremity, without a murmur and without soiling his escutcheon ; 
he made no palinode of his principles, and soiled not his faith." 

One of the letters written about this time to his father 
shows the young man's impatient longing for the consummation 
of the hopes he had cherished from boyhood; hopes that had 
proved an incentive to exertion, and had supplied the motive 
power to impel and sustain him in the patient industry essential 
to success. These hopes were realized on July 25th, 1822, when 
his marriage to Eliza M. Chew was celebrated at Cliveden, 
the much-loved home near Philadelphia, of which an account has 
already been given. 

Among the letters in the possession of the writer there are 
several written by Mrs. Mason, soon after her introduction to 
Virginia life, that are interesting as giving the experience of the 
young people in their first attempt at housekeeping. The fol- 
lowing extract from a letter to her sister is evidently among the 
first sent from her new home. She says : " I believe I have 
mentioned in my several letters all that has occurred worthy of 
notice and have also related Mr. Mason's great effort in attend- 
ing the market ; this task devolves entirely upon the gentlemen, 
as servants can not be trusted ; the market begins at daylight 
and as there was some chance of our starving, if he did not make 
his appearance there in due time, the first day we commenced 
housekeeping, he determined not to lose his chance and sallied 
forth in the most dreadful snowstorm two hours too soon and 
this, after having looked at his watch every half hour after three 
o'clock; his energy amused me exceedingly; however, he still 
goes twice a week, and we feast sumptuously every day upon tur- 
keys at fifty cents, pheasants at one shilling, and partridges in 
abundance. My neighbors still send me all manner of good 
things, supposing that as a young beginner, I am not well sup- 
pUed. Mrs. Tucker has just sent me a profusion of cake and 
jelly, as I was not well enough to go to her tea party. You will 



j^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

justly remark that I ought to be contented with the blessings 
that I now enjoy. 

" You also ask if the reality equals the expectations I have 
indulged for the last six years, and you seem to doubt the ful- 
filment of my anticipations, but I am sure that the enjoyment I 
receive from my husband's devoted love far exceeds my most 
sanguine hopes. 

" He is pleased with everything I do because it is done by 
me ; he is proud of every sentiment I utter and always condemns 
those who disagree with me ; he is always in the parlour when not 
engaged with business, and is always ready to read, play, talk 
or walk as my inclination may dictate. His own home delights 
him and he has often said that he does not know why every 
other place appears inferior unless because his wife has 
more taste and neatness than anybody else. In truth, our 
establishment is by far the most comfortable I have seen in Win- 
chester, although not so expensively furnished as some others. 
We have neither Brussels carpets nor mahogany chairs ; no 
lamps nor mirrors, but everything is new, neat and pretty : as I 
have before told you, our house is small; that is, the rooms are 
small. 

" To comply with your request, I send you an inventory 
of our goods and chattels ; my beautiful Japanese desk is ex- 
ceedingly admired and is very ornamental ; the card tables are 
covered with very pretty green cloths, and look very knowing; 
the piano is a source of infinite delight to me and my guests, 
though terribly out of tune ; upon it are tastefully displayed some 
books, and my paint box; on one of the card tables there are 
placed some of my prettiest books and Mr. Mason's phrenolog- 
ical skull; my chess men and tea-caddy, with the elegant stan- 
dish, grace the other. You must not observe the want of a 
sideboard and tea-table ; the card tables supply the place of both, 
and the chairs fill up the vacancies." 

In this letter is given a diagram of the first floor of the 
house, showing four rooms ; one of the front rooms is marked 
" Office " ; another, " House-keeper's room " ; and on the margin 
is written : " Well supplied with closets, but alas ! no house- 
keeper." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jy 

About the same time she writes : " Winchester is the place 
for the enjoyment of society without display. During the last 
few days we have dined constantly abroad in the pleasantest and 
most agreeable manner possible. Half a dozen families, who 
are closely connected and who like each other vastly, assemble 
at two o'clock with some parlour work; the gentlemen join us 
at three, when we dine upon most excellent dinners, but without 
any parade or ostentation. We are our own confectioners and 
indeed are obliged to superintend all the culinary preparations 
— of course we are not supposed to encounter more than neces- 
sary trouble. Yesterday we met a very nice party at Alex. Tid- 
ball's in compliment to the return of General Tucker and Mr. 
Mason from Richmond. To-morrow we shall spend with Mrs. 
Carr. Tuesday at Mrs. Lee's, etc., etc. I feel exceedingly 
gratified by finding myself always included in these family par- 
ties, and sometimes enjoy them mightily (to use a Virginia 
word)." 

Some eighteen months later, in a letter to her mother, she 
says : " I agree with you perfectly that a cheerful, equable 
temper is one of the first of human blessings, and I always 
struggle most strenuously to obtain and preserve such a state 
of mind as may enable me to resist useless cares and to enjoy 
with gladness every pleasure, however transient or uncertain its 
source may prove, but anxiety about home is still my besetting 
sin, and when I do not hear frequently and minutely how you all 
are, my cheerfulness deserts me, and 'tis futile to disguise how 
much disquietude I feel. My husband is certainly peculiarly 
blessed in this respect, and he possesses the most cheerful, buoy- 
ant, and excellent temper I have ever known. For instance, he left 
me on Monday for Romney; the road between this place and 
Romney is the very worst of the bad. On Monday morning it 
rained violently, and he did not reach his destination till 9 o'clock, 
when he found the Judge was obliged to leave town and the 
Court adjourned without doing any business ; he remounted his 
horse — arrived at home yesterday to dinner, having ridden nearly 
a hundred miles through a severe rain, was wet through and 
through, and has the prospect of making the same journey next 
Sunday; yet he came into the house as merry and contented as 
possible, and I have not heard a single complaint. You will say 



jg LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

such an example ought to have a proper effect on me, and I 
hope to prove its advantage. I often think if matches are made 
in heaven, Anne and James must have been intended for each 
other — their dispositions are certainly similar, both possess 
warm and acute sensibilities, and both exercise equal self-com- 
mand, and both are disposed to be happy." 

And in a later letter she says : " When you write, tell me 
what elicited your episode relative to servants. On this subject 
also, we fully agree. I have often heard Mr. Mason say that 
nothing seemed to him more cowardly and cruel than an un- 
necessary and tyrannical exercise of power over servants ; we 
always treat them with kindness. We have now kept slaves 
nearly eighteen months, and in no one instance has severity been 
used ; to be sure they often test my patience, they are so much 
less capable, careful, or industrious than white servants, but they 
are obedient, faithful, and affectionate. Mr. Mason always 
speaks to them kindly but positively, and I have never had 
occasion to complain to him. As an instance of our experience ; 
poor Gusten (our dining-room servant) has one failing that I had 
thought absolutely incorrigible. When he sees liquor he can 
not resist it, but he had never appeared before his master when 
he was intoxicated, till a short time since when waiting upon the 
tea-table Mr. Mason saw him stagger, and instantly ordered him 
to go to his room, and not to dare to show himself until he had 
made atonement. He then determined that as the next day was 
market day he would not permit Gusten to attend him, but hired 
a man in our neighbourhood, on the plea that Gusten was in- 
disposed. Gusten was mortified to the quick by his master's dis- 
pleasure, and by finding that another was employed to fulfil his 
duty. When Mr. Mason returned from market, Gusten pre- 
sented himself with the most penitent air — asked forgiveness and 
assured his master that if he would trust him it would never 
happen again ; and that he knew his mistress * would go his 
security.' Mr. Mason forgave him, and Gusten came in tears to 
tell me what a good master he had ; and he has conducted him- 
self very well ever since. If his resolution does not fail, he will 
be an excellent servant, but I am fearful lest his propensity has 
been so long indulged that his good behaviour can not last long," 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jg 

Another letter written to her sister about the same time 
gives a lifelike picture of the home-scene. It says : " Mamma's 
letter, with your postscript, gave me infinite pleasure. It 
arrived most opportunely, for with it came a summons from 
General Mason to my husband to meet him in Fredericksburg, 
and intimating that the business that calls him there may require 
him to be absent ten days or a fortnight ; and I do miss him so 
grievously when he leaves me, that it demands no small sacrifice 
of my feelings to his interests to enable me to submit to our 
frequent separations. At this moment it is particularly annoying 
to have our pursuits and habits interrupted, as we have just 
resumed such as we enjoyed last winter, and which the intense 
heat of the summer has hitherto delayed. The evenings are now 
long enough to admit of much useful employment, and to com- 
pensate, by the opportunity they afford of mutually amusing 
each other, for the dissimilarity of our avocations during the day. 
We generally commence the evening by playing two or three 
games of chess, as Mr. Mason is extravagantly fond of the 
game ; then we practise together for a little while,* and after- 
wards he reads to me, while I sew, till eleven o'clock ; as we have 
tea very early, we thus accomplish a great deal before bedtime. 
Mr. Meadef recently brought me several excellent books, such 
as : ' The Philosophy of True Religion, by Knox ' ; ' The Power 
of Religion on the Mind,' and ' Sir Robert Boyle's Reflections,* 
all of which we read together. We have also commenced Miss 
Aiken's * Memoirs of the Reign of James the First,' and find it 
very amusing and interesting, though not quite so good as her 
' Reign of Queen Elizabeth.' " 



*Mr. Mason was fond of the flute as an accompaniment to the piano, 
t Afterwards Bishop of Virginia. 



20 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CHAPTER II. 

Elected to Legislature — Political Creed — Different Ideas in Convention of 
1787 Regarding Functions of Federal Government — Voted for Resolu- 
tions Protesting Against Internal Improvement by Federal Government — 
Defeated in Next Election Because of This Vote — Card Explaining and 
Justifying His Position — Re-elected to Legislature — Letter from John 
Randolph of Roanoke — Speech in Legislature — Letters from Mrs. Mason — 
Candidate for House of Representatives, Defeated — Extract from Win- 
chester Newspaper — Domestic Life — Appointed Member of Board of 
Visitors of University of Virginia — No Personal Interest in Contest for 
Rights of Slaveholders — Elected to House of Representatives — Life and 
Friends in Washington. 

In order to form a just estimate of a man, it is necessary to 
know him in all the various relations of life in which he may- 
have been placed, A well-rounded character will be found ex- 
cellent in every position he may hold. The foregoing must, 
however, suffice for the present as an introduction to Mr. Mason 
in the home life of his young manhood. The time soon came 
when he was entrusted with the public interests of the com- 
munity around him ; and the reader is asked to follow him into 
the wider field upon which he entered in April, 1826, when he 
was called to represent the people of Frederick County in the 
Legislature of his State, as a member of the House of Dele- 
gates. 

In his political creed he was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian 
School, and upon all questions affecting the limitations of the 
Federal Government, he was ever with those who have been 
called " The Straightest Sect of the Strict Constructionists " ; 
in other words, he never lost sight of the clause in the Consti- 
tution which says : " The powers not delegated to the United 
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the State, 
are reserved to the States, or to the people." Mr. Alexander 
H. Stephens, in his " History of the United States," when 
speaking of the convention that met in Philadelphia, in 1787, 
for a revision of the Articles of Union between the States, says : 
" It was soon discovered that a considerable number were in 
favour of disregarding the specific objects for which the con- 
vention had been called, and instead of revising the Articles of 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2 1 

Union, were in favour of presenting an entirely new plan of 
government for public consideration. * * The controlling idea 
of this class was to do away with the Federative feature in the 
Constitution, and to merge the separate sovereignties of the 
several States into one Incorporate Union; and thus to form, 
of all the States, one single National Republic, " instead of a 
Federal Republic of distinct States." 

This idea of the functions of the Federal Government has 
continued in existence, and has exercised an important influence 
in shaping the destiny of the country. It may be recognized in 
what was called the American System, the authorship of which 
was attributed to Mr. Clay, and which advocated the policy of 
building up home manufactures by a protective tariff, and of 
carrying on internal improvements by the Federal Government. 
The sincerity and strength of Mr. Mason's convictions on these 
points were tested during the first term of his service in the 
Legislature. There were in 1826, 'and there had been for sev- 
eral preceding years, marked divisions in the Democratic, or 
RepubHcan Party (as it was then called), regarding these 
questions. Each year since 1821, the chief subjects dis- 
cussed in Congress had been those of internal improve- 
ments and a protective tariff. Again in the nineteenth 
Congress, then in session, the subject of internal improve- 
ment gave rise to warm and angry debate. The Cumber- 
land Road and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal were the 
two prominent objects discussed, although the design extended 
to a general system. In the Virginia House of Delegates, Mr. 
Giles offered resolutions protesting against all authority of the 
United States Government to make roads and canals within 
the State. Mr. Mason voted for and advocated these resolu- 
tions; and by so doing, incurred the displeasure of many of his 
constituents who thought the measures he had opposed would 
be advantageous to their own section of the country. 

Thus early in his career occurred the first instance of what 
was afterwards repeated, when he was, for a time, in advance of 
the popular sentiment of his district, and, consequently, was 
not supported by his constituents who having, perhaps, given 
less time and thought to the consideration of the measures pro- 
posed, did not see as soon or as clearly, as their representative 



22 I^IFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



saw, the true character and the future effects of the legislation 
that he had opposed. 

His reasons for the course he had pursued are clearly ex- 
pressed, and fearlesssly maintained, in the following address to 
the " Freeholders of Frederick County," which he published in 
the early spring of 1827. 

" Felloiv-Citizens: Finding upon my return from the Leg- 
islature, that my vote upon certain resolutions, brought in by 
a select committee of the last House of Delegates upon motion 
of Mr. Giles, has subjected me to much animadversion, I deem 
it necessary, as well as for my own vindication as to correct 
misapprehension, that the subject of those resolutions should be 
exposed and canvassed before you are called to pass upon my 
conduct at the approaching election. 

" There is no man living who admits more fully than I do, 
the amenability of a representative to his constituents — none 
who would seek less to conceal or disguise his sentiments upon 
any political question, with a view to the ephemeral popularity 
which such a course may sometimes procure; still less, who 
would endeavor, by any evasion, to retain a seat in the coun- 
cils to which your voice has lately advanced him. 

" Having said this much, I have a right to ask that you 
would shut your ears against the many contemptible insinua- 
tions and misrepresentations, which are circulated on the eve 
of every election, vague and uncertain fabrications, backed by 
no authority, and having no name to vouch them. Of such I 
will say nothing more than, that whenever they are presented 
in a tangible shape, I shall be found ready and willing to meet 
them; there being no part of my conduct to which I do not 
invite the freest investigation. 

" The resolutions passed by the last Legislature, involved 
matters of grave national concern, and of deep import to the 
States of our Confederacy. I assure you as far as I was com- 
petent to pass upon their policy, they received from me no 
light consideration. 

"At any time, or as one of the frequent occasions, result- 
ing from the nature of our government, where Federal power 
has been questioned on the one hand, and State-Right asserted 
on the other, it behooved a representative of the people, who is 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. -,, 

— — — — - £J 

to Speak their voice, to deliberate well. But under the circum- 
stances of the present case, when challenging the policy of an 
administration which came in against the immediate will of 
the people, and whose course has been during the two years of 
its existence, to sustain itself at every cost, whether of public 
good, or of constitutional limitation — it behooved the repre- 
sentative not only to deliberate well, but to act with decision. 

" The general question is not a new one. The construction 
of the Federal Government has been, since its adoption, the 
point upon which the two parties in our country have always 
divided. In practice it has been found, as well as foretold by 
our immortal Henry, that the extension of Federal power tends 
to consolidation, from which, when once established, there is no 
alternative between despotism or civil war. 

" If a Constitution be the limit which the people have 
assigned to those who have the government in charge, it is cer- 
tainly the duty of a representative, made, if possible, still more 
imperative by the solemnity of an oath, faithfully to preserve its 
integrity, when, according to his honest convictions, those 
limits have been transgressed. This I have done, and no more. 
The law of Congress passed for the protection of domestic 
manufactures, by the imposition of new and heavy, duties upon 
foreign importations, against which these resolutions in part 
protested, I believe in my best judgment, is as unwarranted by 
the Constitution as in practice it has been found oppressive 
and calamitous to our agricultural community. 

" To raise revenue, and, perhaps, to some purposes in regu- 
lating commerce, the Federal Government is expressly author- 
ized to lay imposts. But when, with other views, as in the case 
of the tariff law, this power is exercised with the intent of aiding 
the manufacturer, its necessary effect is, to tax the rest of the 
community for the benefit of a particular class, and it is found 
in the words of the resolution to be * unjust, unequal, and 
oppressive.' In our State, too, whose interest is exclusively 
agricultural, the burthen is found particularly heavy. Because 
at the same time that his crop is rotting on his hands for want 
of a market, the farmer is forced to pay, as a premium to the 
manufacturer, the difference between the duties necessary for 
revenue, and those added to encourage manufactures. Deeply 



2^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

impressed with these views on the constitutional point, apart 
from its ruinous policy, I sustained by my vote this protest 
against the tariff law of 1824. 

" Next as to the resolution which protests against the 
exercise of any power on the part of the Federal Government, 
to make roads and canals, within the limits of a State : 

" This power has been traced by its advocates, at some 
time or other, as incidental to almost every express grant in the 
Federal Constitution. It would far exceed the limits of this 
address to attempt a refutation of all ; neither is it necessary, 
because I seek alone to vindicate my opinions. Yet, as the 
strongest ground assumed, is that ' to establish post roads,' I 
may select that for illustration of my views. 

" The purpose of the instrument there was to give to the 
Federal Government the exclusive control over the Post-Office 
Department, and the transmission of the mails; and to give 
nothing else. The power to ' establish ' the post road, to my 
apprehension, means alone, the right to indicate or declare the 
route by which the mail is to be transmitted; and so far from 
being intended to confer a power to construct a road, was meant 
only to prevent the interference of State authority, in the pas- 
sage of the' mails over their roads, and through their limits. 

" But again — the States are parties to the Constitution m 
their sovereign capacity. They have created a government by 
it, for the better management of those concerns, which, from 
their contiguity and intimate dependencies, they hold in com- 
mon — and we find, that intending to reserve to themselves all 
power not indispensably necessary for the management of these 
general concerns, they have measured out authority to their 
Federal rulers, with a slow and cautious hand. The power to 
make a road involves a right to come into our territory ; to con- 
demn so much land as may be required for the purpose ; and to 
take as much materials of earth, timber, etc., as may be neces- 
sary to construct it. Now I would ask, whether, had it been 
the intention of the framers of the Constitution to confer so im- 
portant a power as this, they would have given it by the equivo- 
cal phrase of power ' to establish post roads ' ? 

" Further — This right involves in its legitimate conse- 
quences the condemnation of the land through which the road 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 25 

passes, and the transference of the jurisdiction over it, from the 
State to the Federal Government, So much territorial juris- 
diction as is measured by its extent is to be cut off from the 
States, by this construction of the phrase above quoted; when 
by the same instrument (so jealous were they of their territorial 
jurisdiction), the Federal Government can not take from a State 
as much of its soil as is necessary to build an arsenal, or to erect 
a light-house on a barren sand beach, without first receiving 
from that State, a solemn cession of the twenty feet square 
which such building may cover. 

" But again — if further proof be wanted to show that this 
assumption is unwarranted, we have it in the fact, that in the 
very convention which framed the Constitution, a proposition 
to confer upon the Federal Government a power to make roads 
and canals was formally made, and as formally rejected. 

" Under these solemn and deliberate convictions, and 
sworn, too, to support the Constitution, I was called to record 
my vote for or against the resolutions. Upon the constitu- 
tional point, I could not, and did not hesitate. When thus 
situated, a representative is bound, by every obligation, to dis- 
card all personal considerations, and to express by his vote, 
the convictions of his best judgment. I have done this, and do 
not fear to avow it. 

" As to the general doctrine of these resolutions upon the 
points which they involve of constitutional law, they express 
nothing more than the uniform decisions of Virginia from the 
year '96, when her protest was entered against the celebrated 
Sedition Law of the elder Adams, to the present day. They 
express the uniform policy of the Democratic party, amongst 
whom I was born and bred, from whom my earliest impressions 
were received, and from whose doctrines, sanctioned by maturer 
years, I have never deviated, and never can. 

" If by my vote upon these resolutions, my political fate is 
to turn, let it be so. I have done my duty, according to the 
honest dictates of my best judgment, and I wish not to evade 
the test. There is no man vvho esteems your favour, or appre- 
ciates your confidence, more than I do, but I should be 
unworthy of either, were I meanly to solicit its continuance, 



26 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

by the suppression of my opinion, or the sacrifice of my 
principles. " Your fellow-citizen, 

" TAMES M. MASON." 

He was, however, defeated in the next election in conse- 
quence of this vote; and for the next year he devoted himself 
most assiduously and successfully to the practice of his profes- 
sion. 

In the canvass of the year 1828, he again avowed and vin- 
dicated the obnoxious vote, and it would appear as though the 
people were then convinced of the truth and justice of the posi- 
tion he had maintained, for he was then returned to the House 
of Delegates by a triumphant majority. There is still extant 
a letter from Mr. John Randolph, of Roanoke, to Mr. Mason, 
dated Washington, April 12th, 1828, which says : 

" Let me congratulate you, my dear sir, as I do most cor- 
dially, on your late signal and deserved triumph over prejudice 
and ignorance and political fanaticism not less blind than that 
of religion — and not only you, my dear sir, but my country, but 
Virginia. I am now spitting blood and may not live to see the 
next meeting of the Assembly — but Frederick County has re- 
deemed nobly her errors and expatiated her offences. She has 
one representative, at least (I have not at all the honor to know 
your colleague), worthy of the largest, richest and most populous 
county in the State. 

" Most respectfully and truly yours, 

" JOHN RANDOLPH, of Roanoke. 

" To James M. Mason, Esquire, Winchester, Virginia." 

During the session of 1828 and 1829, resolutions of like 
character with those of 1826 and 1827 were again introduced. 
Again did Mr. Mason vote for, and advocate them in debate, 
yet in April, 1829, and again in 1830, was he returned to the 
House with the full approbation of his constituents of what he 
had done. 

The most important business before the Legislature in the 
session of 1828 and 1829 was the organization of the Convention 
called for the following year, "To amend the Constitution of 
Virginia." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



27 



It may at first glance appear as if the entire change of 
circumstances since that date had destroyed interest in the dis- 
cussions of questions long ago settled; closer observation will, 
however, discover that, as in many other instances, " The best 
principles of our government were endangered by the measures 
then proposed." 

The position taken by Mr. Mason in the debate on the 
Convention, January 3d, 1829, is strongly characteristic of the 
man. Omitting a few introductory remarks, he says : " The 
bill sought to be amended, provides, in the first section, for a 
representation from the present Congressional districts, which 
includes not the free whites alone, but with them three-fifths of 
the slaves. I contend, sir, that those only are to meet, through 
their representatives, in this Convention, in whom the political 
power resides. That it is an act of the people in their highest 
sovereignty — an exercise of that political power, which resides 
only in the political community, and in which none but the 
members of that community can of right participate. What 
has been asked of the General Assembly? That it would, by 
legislative provision, enable the political community to meet in 
convention for the purpose of reforming their social compact. 
The bill in your hand does not comply with this demand; on 
the contrary, denouncing the true political community as rec- 
ognized by every principle of our institutions, it requires, as a 
preliminary to their compliance, the admission of those who 
form no part of that community, and with whom there is not one 
common attribute, 

" Sir, the political community of which I speak is the free 
white people of this Commonwealth. The people of Virginia, 
and not the slaves of that people, are those who wield the polit- 
ical power, and if gentlemen are not prepared to desert the true 
principles of our polity, they must unite with me in the endeavor 
to expunge this odious feature from the bill. How is it sought 
to be sustained? Is this extraordinary demand made for the 
representation of so much property? or so much population? 
On the one or the other the proposition must rest. If it be so 
much population, let the discussion there involved come from 
the other side. I will not invite or anticipate so delicate a ques- 
tion. If it be made, I am not unprepared to meet it; but if it 



28 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

must mingle in this debate, be the responsibility on those who 
advance it. 

" We are told, however, that representation and taxation 
ought to go together; and that slaves, being a peculiar subject 
of tax, regard should be had to them in representation. In 
other words, that property, nakedly as such, ought of right to 
be represented in convention. 

" 1 maintain, sir, that the reverse of this proposition is not 
only true in principle, but is demonstrable in argument. The 
Convention, sir, is called to revise and remodel our funda- 
mental laws. A resumption by the people of their political 
power, for the purpose of a new distribution. What says your 
Bill of Rights? That ' all pozver is vested in and conse- 
quently received from the people.' ' That government is, 
or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protec- 
tion, and security of the people, nation, or community.' ' And 
that, when any government shall be found inadequate, or con- 
trary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an 
indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, 
or abolish it, in such manner as shall be deemed most conducive 
to the public weal : In the enunciation of these great prin- 
ciples the people alone are recognized as the depositaries of 
political power — the will of that people is shown by the voice of 
their majority and that will is supreme. Why, sir, have 
the majority this right? — it resides in their physical force, and in 
nothing else. There is not one word here said, in tracing the 
source of power, about the property of the community as 
containing any portion of this power. Will gentlemen tell us 
that these are mere political abstractions — very true in theory, 
but not applicable in practice? Do gentlemen deny that ' all 
power is vested in the people'? — or will they content them- 
selves to admit it, as it is written, and then thrust it by as a mere 
abstraction? If gentlemen do this, they must be prepared to 
declare to the world, that the very substratum of popular gov- 
ernment, as understood and practiced here for more than fifty 
years, is but a vain and unsubstantial shadow — that the Bill of 
Rights of '^6, that epoch of glorious memory, was a declaration 
of mere abstractions, intended to deceive a confiding people, 
and cajole them of their power. The great fathers of our Re- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



29 



public have advised a frequent recurrence to fundamental prin- 
ciples. Never was advice better founded — frequent recur- 
rences is necessary to their preservation — nor could there be 
a stronger instance to illustrate its truth, if at this day we are 
to be told by Virginians, that our fundamental principles are 
mere political abstractions, which may keep the word of promise 
to the ear, but break it to the hope. 

" But fortunately for the people, this doctrine, that the 
majority have the right to ' reform, alter, or abolish,' does 
not rest alone in parchment authority; there is an inherent 
conservative right that will give it efficacy if put to the test. 
Why is it that the majority have the right? What sanction has 
the people's will? It resides, sir, in physical force, and it 
resides nowhere else. The power to execute their will makes 
that will supreme. The acknowledgment of this sanction 
brings the minority to submit. In popular government, then, 
the criterion of political power is physical force, and as in prop- 
erty there can be none of this force, so it can carry with it none 
of this power. When I speak, Mr. Chairman, of physical 
force, let me not be understood in the language of threat or 
menace — I mean, sir, nothing such. But the first section of 
this bill contains a provision directly at war with the best prin- 
ciples of our government, and it is but to expose this hostility 
that I trace those principles to their true origin. 

" Property and power are divellent. The one belongs to 
the many, the other to the few. Property if not controlled 
will tyrannize over power — though the proposition may seem 
paradoxical — and the converse is equally true, that power if not 
restrained will lord it over property. Every wise government, 
then, will have these influences so adjusted as to render them 
nearly equipollent." 

It was during the year 1828 that Mr. Mason purchased the 
place known as Selma, and established for himself and his 
family the home where they lived until after the beginning of 
the war between the States, when, in 1862, the withdrawal of 
the Southern troops from Winchester made it necessary that his 
family should seek safety within the lines of the Confederacy. 
This place, which had been formerly the residence of Judge 
Dabney Carr, was situated about a mile west of Winchester, 



jQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

and consisted of a small tract of land sufficient only to afford 
space for an agreeable residence. The house, built by Judge 
Carr, was an unpretending, though substantial and comfortable, 
stone dwelling, beautifully located upon such high ground that 
it commanded a fine view of the surrounding country, and 
looked down upon the town, which made a very pretty picture, 
as it seemed to nestle at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
shaded and sheltered by large trees, while the thickly wooded 
mountains, that were in reality some fifteen miles distant, 
made a rich and effective background, and greatly enhanced 
the beauty and the interest of the scene. 

Here Mr. and Mrs. Mason made a very happy home, not 
only for themselves and their eight children, but, following in 
the footsteps of their parents and their grandparents on both 
sides, and obeying the apostolic injunction to " use hospitality 
without grudging," they failed not to entertain strangers, 
when, by so doing, they were able to extend a kindness, and 
for a large circle of friends and relatives, they always kept an 
open house and a cordial welcome. A few extracts from some 
of Mrs. Mason's letters afford a glimpse of the home-life, and 
make the domestic scene appear very attractive. They also 
give evidence that Mr. Mason's frequent and long absences did 
not diminish his interest in all domestic matters, and they show 
that he thoroughly enjoyed his home and his children, and 
delighted in adding to the beauty and comfort of their resi- 
dence. 

In a letter to her mother, Mrs. Mason says : " Indeed, I 
have felt so delightfully free from care and trouble that I have 
seated myself at my desk with every disposition to impart to 
you, my dearly loved mother, all the satisfaction and all the 
happiness which I am myself experiencing. As I have already 
minutely described our new residence, you may have formed a 
correct idea of our rural felicity. In former times (even at 
the romantic age), I never thought that I had any taste for rustic 
pleasures, but I find that I am excessively amused by and in- 
terested in, all our plans and pursuits for the improvement of 
our establishment ; in short, that I am pecuHarly fitted for rural- 
izing. Our house and grounds are very much in want of atten- 
tion and of putting to rights; as we are obliged to proceed as 



LIFE OF JAMES MVRRAT MASON. jj 

economically as possible, our progress must be very gradual; 
yet the operation supplies a constant source of pleasure, and I 
really believe will materially conduce to our health and happi- 
ness; my husband (bless him) is already more robust and 
hearty than he has been for a long time; my children are as 
blessedly well and as merry as my heart can desire." 

In November, 1829, she writes to her sister: "To-mor- 
row, my husband will commence his journey to Richmond, and 
I am already shrinking from the prospect of spending three 
months in solitude. How strangely inconsistent is the human 
heart! Now it is impossible for any wife in the world to 
delight more than I do in the distinction which her husband 
may command, and no woman on earth ever felt more ambition, 
or more ardently desired the honour and glory of public life; 
yet with all a woman's weakness at this moment I would sac- 
rifice it all and willingly consent to live and die in obscurity 
could I only retain my husband's society and continue to enjoy 
all his domestic virtues. However, it is now too late to repine; 
I must rather brace my mind and my nerves, that I may firmly 
encounter all the evils of our separation, and enable myself 
profitably to employ the leisure and the retirement of the 
winter." 

Some months later she writes of having been suffering 
from some temporary indisposition, and says : " Last week I 
wrote an unusually long letter, but I found I had betrayed such 
a sombre mood I e'en determined to suppress an epistle which 
could only excite gloomy feelings ; however, I flatter myself that 
after to-morrow I shall require much less of your sympathy 
than I have demanded during this long and dreary winter. On 
Friday my husband will return to me and I have no doubt that 
both mentally and physically I shall be benefitted by his society. 
I wish I could describe to you the eagerness with which my 
children are expecting their father." 

While in Richmond, during the winter of 1829 and '30, as 
a member of the Legislature, Mr. Mason was chosen to fill the 
vacancy in the Convention caused by the resignation of Mr. 
Hierome L. Opie, of Jefferson County, then in Virginia. 

Family tradition and old letters say that this winter of 
1829 and '30 was the first one spent by Mrs. Mason at home 



32 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



in Virginia without her husband. In preceding years she had 
passed the months of his absence at her father's home in Phila- 
delphia, or at that of Mr. Mason's father in Georgetown. But 
now her family of three children, with their nurse, made too 
large a party to be easily carried on so long a journey, as that 
from Winchester to Philadelphia was then considered. The 
difficulties attending such an undertaking in those days, will be 
shown by a letter from Mr. Mason to his sister-in-law, Miss 
Chew, of Philadelphia, written in anticipation of a visit from her 
and her mother to Winchester, and dated March, 1830: 

" My Dear Sister: — I regret much to find by your letter 
to Eliza that you could not afford me the pleasure of 
attending you from Georgetown to our 'tra montane retreat; 
yet it is mitigated in the hope held out that we shall before 
long welcome both your excellent mother and yourself. Eliza 
desires me to advise you of the different and best routes hither 
from Baltimore. The route direct from Baltimore is shorter 
than to come by Georgetown (tho' don't understand me as 
advising it, because to deprive my good family on the Island 
of your visit en passant, would be unfair), this en parenthese. 

" If from Baltimore direct, you would come through Fred- 
ericktown and Hagerstown to Sharpsburg on the Potomac 
River, a good turnpike all the way, and distance about seventy- 
five miles. From Sharpsburg through Shepherdstown (Virginia), 
to Winchester, say thirty miles. The road none of the best, 
but still by no means one of the worst — to be accomplished in 
a day's drive, by keeping good horses, and using diligence. 
The best stopping places on this route, or the most conven- 
ient stages, I can not indicate, having but an imperfect knowl- 
edge of the road. If you come to Georgetown, of the route 
thence, I may say, as McGregor in Scotland, ' My foot is on 
my native heath.' I can mark it by the inch ; you leave the 
Island at as early an hour as possible in the morning; thence, 
by the turnpike which leads from the Potomac Bridge (the 
Islanders will explain this to you), to Fairfax Court House 
(Shacklett's tavern) to dinner; say 15 miles. Thence to Aldie 
(Shacklett's tavern again), say 20 miles, where you will stay all 
night; thence another and earlier start, 17 miles, to Paris (Set- 



LIFE OF JAM^S MURRAY MASON. 



33 



tie's tavern), to dinner; thence across the Blue Ridge and 
Shenandoah River, say 20 miles, to Winchester." 

In the following October, another letter speaks again of 
the home-life at Selma. It says : " I daresay if you were with 
me this morning you would think me the happiest of my sex, 
for this delightful weather has renovated mind and body, and 
all around me appears as bright and smiling as possible. The 
children are racing and chasing over the hill as merry as my 
heart could desire, and all of them are as well as they are merry, 
and their father is enjoying a quiet day of rest as much as either 
of the bairns. He has been continually at court for the last 
two weeks, and really looks jaded, though, as usual, he is in 
good spirits and says he feels perfectly well." 

Unwilling to encounter another long absence from his 
family, and another interruption in the practice of his profes- 
sion, Mr. Mason was reluctant to go again to the Legislature, 
but elected by his constituents and urged by his friends, he 
returned, in 1830, to the House of Delegates, to aid in organ- 
izing and putting into operation the new Constitution, which 
he had, as a member of the Convention, helped to frame. 

During this winter of 1830, an incident occurred at Selma, 
that shows the warmth and strength of attachment felt for Mr. 
and Mrs. Mason in the community into which they had gone 
as strangers only a few years before. It also afifords oppor- 
tunity to record one of the many instances of disinterested 
friendship that seemed to be mere matters of course with that 
noble man. Dr. Robert Baldwin, of Winchester, the tried and 
trusted friend, as well as the family physician, at Selma. A 
negro woman, hired by Mrs. Mason for a day's work, became 
ill while in her house. Dr. Baldwin was summoned ; he at once 
recognized the symptoms as smallpox ; there was no hospital 
to which she could be sent, and he and Mrs. Mason decided it 
was right and proper she should not be moved away, but that 
she should remain at Selma, and her mother should be brought 
to nurse her. The danger of contagion had already been in- 
creased by the fact the woman had been that morning with the 
children in the nursery, and had held the baby in her arms for 
some time. 



j^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

True friend as he was, Dr. Baldwin took entire charge of 
the household, made suitable provision for the other servants, 
as well as for the sick woman^ and took Mrs. Mason, with her 
children and their nurse, to his own house, nothwithstanding 
her earnest protest against the risk he was incurring of danger 
to himself and his wife (he had no children) ; his only reply 
was : " In Mason's absence his family must be taken care of 
by his friends." Mr. Mason was, of course, summoned from 
Richmond, but Dr. Baldwin would not agree to their leaving 
his house until all fear of smallpox had passed away. 

In the Spring of 1831, Mr. Mason was a candidate for the 
House of Representatives from the district of Frederick, Shen- 
andoah and Page counties, but he lost the election by a small 
vote. In writing to her sister of this defeat, Mrs. Mason says : 
" I have now only time to tell you that, notwithstanding the 
support which we received in Frederick, the County of Shen- 
andoah has effectually turned the scale, and changed my hus- 
band's majority from 603 to 15, and as Page County will, on 
Monday, 22d, vote almost unanimously for Allen, Mr. Mason 
will have the pleasure of enjoying the delights of home for the 
next two years at least ; however, in this instance defeat is unat- 
tended by mortification ; indeed, we scarcely feel any disappoint- 
ment. James has received such a vote as will at once prove 
his high standing; such is the fate of war, of political warfare, 
at any rate. I have been very sanguine of success, and, of 
course, very anxious that he should succeed, yet now I am per- 
fectly satisfied, and I think he is himself almost as well con- 
tented as he would have been if he had gained the day. He has 
this morning gone to Romney, and hereafter he will extend his 
practice to the Hardy and Jefferson County Courts, which, 
though it will add to his numerous absences from home, will, 
I trust, add materially to his means of making home agreeable 
and elegant, I will not say comfortable, for we have already 
enough for the comforts of life, if that sufficiency could only be 
managed with judgment and economy; yes, indeed; we have 
more, much more, than we deserve, and let me gratefully ac- 
knowledge that I have learnt to appreciate and to enjoy all my 
blessings." In the same letter she tells her sister : " I have not 
paid for one stitch of work this season, excepting my black 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. je 

dress. I have done, with my own fingers, every particle of sew- 
ing which has been requisite for my husband, my children, or 
myself." 

His defeat in the election of 1831 for the House of Repre- 
sentatives did not, at all, affect his keen interest in all the politi- 
cal questions of the day, which were just then of an exciting 
character, and were, to an unusual degree, engrossing public 
attention. The same principles involving the powers and limi- 
tations of the Federal Government continued to be the subject 
of constantly increasing agitation in both houses of Congress. 
The Tariff Bill of the session of 183 1 and '32 increased, rather 
than diminished, the opposition to the Protective Policy, for 
though it reduced the duties on many imported articles, yet it 
was based on the principle of Federal protection to local inter- 
ests in several States to the injury of the general interests of 
the country, as was maintained by its opponents, and led, as is 
well known, to the " Nullification Ordinance " of South Caro- 
lina. An extract from one of the Winchester newspapers, 
dated January 2d, 1833, shows Mr. Mason's active participancy 
in the opposition to this policy, and gives a clear expression of 
his opinion regarding the points at issue. It says : " At a 
large and highly respectable meeting of the citizens of Win- 
chester, without distinction of party, held on Monday, Decem- 
ber 31st, 1832, to take into consideration the propriety of 
adopting resolutions approbatory of the course of the Presi- 
dent of the United States in his recent proclamation relative to 
the proceedings in South Carolina, a committee was appointed to 
prepare and report a preamble and resolutions, etc., etc." The 
paper shows that * Colonel J. M. Mason was one of this com- 
mittee, and that he was one of the three out of the com- 
mittee of seven who brought in a " minority report," in which 
was more clearly expressed, than in the report of the majority, 
the principle of State Sovereignty and the Right of Secession, 
at the same time saying : " We venerate the Union of the 
States as the palladium of our liberty, the source of our dignity 
and influence abroad, and of our tranquility and prosperity at 
home." It also states that Colonel J. M. Mason offered, as a 

*Mr. Mason was, at this time, Colonel of a Regiment of Militia, and 
thus acquired the title by which he was always known in Winchester. 



36 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



substitute for one of the resolutions of the minority report, the 
following : " Resolved, That we hail with peculiar satisfaction 
the disposition evinced by Congress to reduce the duties upon 
imports to the standard of revenue alone. Viewing our taxes 
as nothing more than the contribution paid by the citizen for 
the support of the government, which protects him in the 
enjoyment of civil liberty, we regard the present tariff, avowedly 
imposed for other purposes, as a departure from the meaning 
of the Constitution and repugnant to the character of our insti- 
tutions." 

The interval between his last term, 1830 and '31, in the 
Legislature of the State and his election to the House of Rep- 
resentatives in 1837, was not marked by any event of special 
interest of which there is any record. It seems to have been 
spent in diligent attention to his profession, and in enjoyment 
of the domestic life for which he was peculiarly well fitted, and 
of which he was ever the center of attraction. 

A short extract from one of his letters, although written 
several years later, when he was in Washington, is appropriate 
here as expressing his feeling. It was addressed to his sister- 
in-law. Miss Chew, and in it he says : " I have sent by mail, to- 
day, your letter to E., and on Friday, God willing, I shall send 
myself after it. I long to get back again to my own dear home, 
the only spot on earth where, when one enters, he knows that 
suspicion, distrust, and jealousy do not attend him." 

All who are familiar with the home at Selma agree in the 
testimony, that it was in the daily intercourse with his wife, 
children, servants, and neighbors that he appeared to the great- 
est advantage. His uniformly cheerful, buoyant temperament 
and his fondness for social life, combined with his interest in 
the pursuits and pleasures of his children and their young com- 
panions, made his presence essential to the full enjoyment of any 
amusement, and his approbation was considered full compen- 
sation for any exertion or self-denial asked of them. 

The writer recalls with great vividness how eagerly the 
children looked forward to " Father's " coming home from his 
office in the afternoon; how his bright, joyous voice and hearty 
laugh was heard as soon as he entered the house, and how it 
was thought great fun to go with him for a walk or a drive: 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. o^ 

or how, when he took his exercise, as he was fond of doing, in 
working in the garden or in cutting wood for the fires (in those 
days, it will be remembered, open wood fires were invariably 
used in Virginia), how he was accompanied by all the children, 
who were fully persuaded they were giving valuable assistance ; 
how, when it became too late to be out of doors, they would 
crowd around him in the house to hear a story, while the 
youngest of the party was held in his arms; or how he would 
call his eldest daughter " To make music on the piano, so they 
could have a dance." Such merry-makings in their early child- 
hood are always associated with their father's presence. Yet, 
while thus accustomed to companionship and familiar intercourse 
with him, his children were trained from earliest infancy to an 
obedience and respect which seemed to be instinctive or which 
was, perhaps, inspired by his way of looking fully into their 
eyes and speaking positively but without harshness and without 
ever raising his voice to a loud tone. 

The writer does not recall an instance of having seen him 
lose his patience with one of the children, or his having resorted 
to any kind of punishment. It never seemed necessary, for no 
one thought of disputing his authority, and he never seemed to 
arouse any spirit of resistance or opposition. This can prob- 
ably be explained, partly by the constant training of their 
mother, who taught them to think that everything must be 
made comfortable and pleasant when " Father " was at home, 
because he was so often absent, and, doubtless, partly by the 
fact that he was himself blessed with an unusually amiable, 
happy temper, and that his habitual self-control was remarkable 
throughout his life. Added to this was his conviction that the 
common practice of whipping children and of controlling them 
by fear was injurious and directly opposed to the development 
of the best and highest character. 

He maintained, on the contrary, that the best results could 
be obtained by avoiding, so far as possible, the necessity for 
asserting or enforcing authority, by never making unnecessary 
points; by diverting the attention of a child, or, to quote his 
own words, by " changing the current of his thoughts," or by 
appealing to his better nature, comparatively few difficulties 
would, he said, then arise, and if the parent was always gentle, 



3S 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



and at the same time firm, a child could be trained to self- 
control and a self-respect which would elevate and strengthen 
the character far more than could be expected when the obe- 
dience and good behavior during childhood had been secured 
by the fear of punishment. However theoretical and imprac- 
ticable this doctrine may be considered by those who hold dif- 
ferent views, it was nevertheless the opinion held and consist- 
ently put in practice by both Mr. and Mrs. Mason. It is intro- 
duced here as illustrative of the character and temperament of 
the man. 

In June, 1833, he was appointed, by the Governor of the 
State, one of the " Visitors of the University of Virginia " to 
fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. James Brecken- 
ridge. The interest and pride that he had before felt in this in- 
stitution was naturally increased by the responsibility then 
devolved upon him, and he made it a special point to be present 
at all the meetings of the Board. The term for which " Visi- 
tors " were appointed was four years ; he continued to hold the 
position for eighteen years, his successor being appointed in 
185 1, after Mr. Mason's duties in the Senate made it impossible 
for him longer to attend these meetings. His interest in the 
institution continued, and was frequently expressed, during the 
last years of his life. 

It is much to be regretted that all of Mr. Mason's letters to 
his wife and children were burned (to avoid risk of their falling 
into the hands of the enemy), at the time of the evacuation of 
Richmond by the Confederate Army; they would have fur- 
nished a valuable synopsis of all matters of either private or 
public interest connected with his career during the period 
from 1820, when he first went to Winchester, to the time of his 
departure for England in 1861. It was his habit, when absent 
from home to send his wife by every mail a running comment- 
ary upon the people with whom he was associated, and upon all 
things that occupied his attention; while his constant reference 
to the smallest details of domestic interest proved that his home 
and his family were always borne in mind. He kept up also a 
separate correspondence with every one of his children, begin- 
ning with each in turn as soon as the child could understand a 
letter, often before it could write a reply ; and they were all en- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jg 

couraged to write to him freely of their childish amusements, their 
friends and their pets. He constantly said to them, " Remem- 
ber that whatever interests you is of interest to me." 

Not only were their school reports sent to him, but many 
of their compositions and exercises were sent to him for cor- 
rection or approval, and this was continued while he was in the 
Senate, until the youngest child had outgrown the necessity for 
such supervision. 

These letters would also have given clearer and truer ideas 
than are now generally entertained of the customs and the mode 
of living in Virginia prior to 1861, and of the tone of thought 
and feeling in the days when the master and mistress recognised 
a responsibility in the care and training of their servants, second 
only to that devolving upon them as parents, and when the 
negroes were so entirely identified with the interests of their 
owners as to consider their own personal dignity and impor- 
tance greatly enhanced by any distinction or honor achieved by 
their masters. 

There were many evidences of this feeling among the ser- 
vants at Selma, and it extended to their friends among the other 
negroes in Winchester, Among many instances illustrative of 
this, one that should be recorded was the custom long continued 
by the negro band of Winchester of " giving Marster a sere- 
nade," the night following his return after a long absence from 
home. 

Several of the members of the band belonged to gentlemen 
living in Winchester ; others were free negroes of the neighbor- 
hood. The serenades were generally arranged by one of the 
Selma servants and were intended as a sort of welcome and as 
a mark of respect. On such occasions, Mr. Mason always 
thanked them for the kind feeling evinced, and a moderate drink 
of whiskey and water was given to all of the party. Doubtless the 
expectation of such refreshment added not a little to the interest 
of the occasion, and made the band willing and anxious to 
celebrate his home-coming. Still the story serves to show 
something of his intercourse with the negroes. 

Although always firm in maintaining the constitutional 
rights of slave-holders, he had little personal interest at stake, 
as he never owned more than a small number of slaves, not 



40 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



enough to supply the domestic service required in his family. 
There were, however, always one or two at Selma, as in all other 
Southern households, who had passed the age of active service, 
and were no longer expected to discharge any regular duties, 
and also a number of children, too young to be of any use, but 
for whom the same provision of food, clothing and shelter was 
necessary as for those doing full duty. Therefore, if the ques- 
tion had been considered as one of personal aggrandizement, it 
is probable that his own fortune would have been increased 
rather than diminished if he could have liberated all of his ser- 
vants, and by so doing, have emancipated himself from all obli- 
gation or responsibiHty for the care of the helpless and the 
dependent. 

A manuscript in Mr. Mason's writing, found among his 
papers, says : " I have often had it in contemplation to keep a 
diary, in which events, as they transpired, should be recorded, 
in the belief that it would be interesting, at least, and possibly 
instructive to those who come after me." Unfortunately, the 
purpose here expressed was not carried into execution, and the 
entries are few and at long intervals. Of this particular period 
he says: "In April, 1831, I was a candidate for Congress to 
represent the district of Frederick, Shenandoah, and Page 
Counties, against Robert Allen, of Shenandoah, the incumbent, 
and lost the election by a small vote. 

" Continued in the successful practice of my profession until 
1837. In the fall preceding, was nominated for the House of 
Representatives in Congress by a convention, for the district 
then composed of Frederick, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, 
Jefferson, and Clarke Counties, and elected by a large vote in 
April, 1837. 

" In May, 1837, all the banks in the United States sus- 
pended specie payments, in consequence of which Mr. Van 
Buren, the President, summoned Congress to meet in Septem- 
ber. At that special session, I separated, with others, from the 
administration on the measure of requiring specie to be paid in 
the existing state of the country, for all government dues; for my 
reasons I refer to my speeches of that and the ensuing sessions 
of that Congress. This measure was defeated at the special 
session, and again pressed at the subsequent sessions. I con- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. .j- 



tinued in firm opposition. At the close of this Congress, the 
Democratic Convention for the district treating me as heretic, 
refused to renominate me, and did nominate William I.ucas, of 
Jefferson, who was elected, I voting for him. 

" After this, I resumed my practice with great diligence and 
success. My practice became very large, frequently embracing 
ten or twelve Superior Courts. Each spring and fall, I per- 
emptorily declined all future overtures to return to the House 
of Delegates." 

Reference has already been made to Mr. Mason's fondness 
for domestic life ; he had not only no taste for hotel or club-life, 
but he always declared it to be intolerable. 

A short time, therefore, after going to Washington, he 
adopted a plan to which he adhered during the two winters that 
he was in the House of Representatives, and which he resumed 
when he returned to Washington after his election to the 
Senate, the plan of forming what he called " a mess," and, 
combining with two or three other gentlemen, taking a house 
and living together as one family. 

The first " mess " thus formed included several ladies, for 
one of his letters refers to Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun,, and Colonel 
and Mrs. Pickens, of South Carolina; Mr. Mallory and Mr. 
R. M. T. Hunter, of Essex County, Virginia. The daily inter- 
course thus established led to warm and lasting friendship with 
every one of those enumerated, including Mr. Calhoun, for 
whom Mr. Mason always felt great admiration, as well as warm 
personal regard, notwithstanding the criticism contained in one 
of the letters to be presently quoted. In connection with this 
criticism it is to be noted that Mr. Calhoun advocated the sub- 
treasury system which Mr. Mason was strenuously opposing. 
On most other questions they fully agreed, particularly on those 
affecting the rights of the States. 

With Mr. Hunter there was specially congenial intercourse, 
although there was marked contrast between them as regards 
their temperaments and their personal tastes. Mr. Mason, as it 
has before been said, had an unusually cheerful, buoyant, hope- 
ful disposition, and was fond of society, particularly of that of 
young people, and he mingled freely among the people around 
him, wherever he might be. He often said nothing interested 



^2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

him more than the study of human nature, and that he thought, 
with Pope, " The proper study of mankind is man." 

Mr. Hunter was far more incHned to the quiet, secluded 
life of a student, had little disposition to mingle with the gay 
world of Washington, and was of a less sanguine nature, being 
more apt to dwell on the dark side of life. He had, however, a 
mind of the highest order, and was a man of pure, exalted char- 
acter. He and Mr. Mason belonged to the same school of 
political thought ; they seldom differed on any measure of im- 
portance, as was shown by the frequency with which they were 
found voting together, and they felt entire confidence in and 
respect for each other. They were associated together thus in 
the House of Representatives, and again, after an interval of 
eight years, in the Senate, when they renewed the intimacy that 
continued without interruption until the end of Mr. Mason's 
Hfe. Every winter from 1847 to 1861, they lived together. 
Sometimes the " mess " was larger, and included several other 
friends, the members of it changing from year to year, but 
these two remained together. 

There were many considerations, in addition to those con- 
nected with the expense involved, that influenced both Mr. and 
Mrs. Mason in their decision not to bring their children to 
Washington, but to keep them, while young, in the quiet retire- 
ment and the pure country air of their home at Selma. 

The winter of 1837 and 1838 was spent by Mrs. Mason, 
partly in Philadelphia at her father's house, and partly at the 
home of her husband's father. General John Mason, at Cler- 
mont, in Fairfax County, Virginia. The winter of 1838 and 
1839 seems to have been spent at Selma. This being a short 
session of Congress, Mr. Mason's absence was only from the 
first Monday in December until the 4th of March following. 

The only letters written by either Mr. or Mrs. Mason dur- 
ing this period that have been preserved, are those addressed to 
her sister, Miss Chew, several of which are now given, as they 
furnish a truer idea of the man and afford a better glimpse of 
the society in which he was mingling, than could be afforded by 
any description written by another after the lapse of so many 
years. The absence of any letters to his own family, whether 
to his parents, his brothers or sisters, or to his wife and children, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. .^ 

is explained by the fact, that at the close of the war between the 
States, there was not one home remaining of all those formerly 
belonging to the different members of his family, although they 
were scattered in many places. Two brothers and a sister had 
separate and comfortable homes on their respective estates in 
Fairfax County, Virginia; one brother had his home in Missis- 
sippi; another, in Louisiana; a son, in Galveston, Texas; one 
son-in-law, in Maryland; and another, in Fauquier County, 
Virginia. Yet all were destroyed and the contents scattered and 
lost in the general desolation made by the invading armies. Mr. 
Mason's home at Selma was not an exception. Thus in this 
general destruction, all letters written by either Mr. or Mrs. 
Mason to the different members of the family were lost. 

This is, however, anticipating the record of events that 
occurred in later years, and that must be noticed in their proper 
places. To return to earlier days, and to the aforesaid letters 
to Miss Chew. The first reads thus : 

" Washington, May 24th, 1838. 
" My Dear Sister: As I know that Eliza has not written to 
you within a few days past, and that you will be a little curious 
to know what she is about, I * take my pen ' to indulge you. 
Well, I wrote you that I had accepted Mr. Secretary's invita- 
tion for her to dine. She came up accordingly on Monday, or 
rather my good mother brought her up, leaving all the children 
at Clermont ; * her escort went back the same evening, leaving 
her on my hands. Tuesday she spent all the morning with 
Maria and Catharine.f looking about for finery, and in due time, 
that is to say, a little before 7 p. m., we went to the dinner. 
There we found all the diplomats assembled, with the elite of 
Congress, the Ministers from England, France, Russia, and 
Texas, and charges from the smaller powers of Spain, Holland, 
Prussia, etc., etc. Entirely a court circle — wasn't that grand? 
Mons' De Pontois attended Madam Mason to table, and a 
clever French chat they had of it, I have no doubt. What do 



*Mrs. Mason, with her six children, had spent the winter with her own 
family at " Cliveden," and they were now with Mr. Mason's parents at their 
country home at Clermont, in Fairfax County, Virginia, some eight or ten 
miles from Washington. 

tHis sister, Mrs. General Cooper, and his sister-in-law, Mrs. John Mason. 



.. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

you think was my only admonition to E when we got into 

the carriage to go to dinner? 

" Now, said I, I have but one piece of counsel to give ; let 
the poor man, whoever he may be, with whom your lot is cast at 
dinner, put in a word now and then. But as it turned out, there 
was no need of the advice, for the representative of Le Grand 
Monarque was not easily defrauded of his proper share. We 
got back about ii o'clock. By the way, I could not toll my 
consort to Mrs. Peyton's, for Catharine took charge of her, 
and has kept her ever since, I plying between Washington and 
Georgetown with the regularity of an ordinary diligence. 

" At first Eliza was very sentimental indeed about the 
children left at Clermont, and last night insisted that she must 
go back to-day (by the way, it rained all day yesterday so inces- 
santly that she could not get abroad). But with the bright sun 
this morning, together with letters from Anna and Ben,$ telling 
her they were doing well, and the little children were perfectly 
satisfied and not crying, her confidence seemed to revive, and 
now I doubt whether I will get her ofT before the end of the 
week. 

" She was at the Capitol all this morning, and left there at 
half past two, with Catharine, to go to visit Mrs. Madison, Mrs. 
Poinsett, etc., etc. I think the result will be that she will stay 
here about until Saturday, when we will go back to Clermont 
together. 

" Now is not the old lady becoming enterprising? Think 
of her leaving the children for a week, to amuse herself in this 
dissipated metropolis. 

" I am happy in the opportunity, however, of telling you, 
and your excellent parents, of the well-being of those for whom 
I know they are so much interested, and of again subscribing 
myself always most Affectionately yours, 

"J. M. M." 

Again he writes to Miss Chew from Washington : 

"January ist, 1839. 
'My Very Dear Sister: I have to thank you on behalf of 
myself and household, for your kind letter addressed to me at 

JThe two elder children. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



45 



Winchester, and again for myself more especially for your last 
received last night, enclosing one to my far better half. I think 
my scolding letter, as you facetiously term it, has had the very 
happiest effect, as it has produced already two, in return, to your 
humble servant, and the same number to her for whom I am 
bound to provide. You should be forever obliged to me for 
striking the chord that has vibrated to such happy results. I 
am sure my excellent wife will applaud the act in all time to 
come. 

" I returned from Winchester on Sunday last, having spent 
a week dans le sein de ma famille. Eliza and our little ones were 
at first much chagrined at the abandonment of her proposed 
journey. But she was soon satisfied that the intense cold, with 
the tendency of the children to croup and catarrhal affections, 
would have rendered it impracticable even had all their prepara- 
tions been made. As evidence at the threshold, on the night I 
reached home, we were more than five hours on the road from 
Harper's Ferry to Winchester, a distance generally run in two 
hours, exposed to an excessively cold night, by the freezing of 
the water in the tanks attached for supply to the locomotive. 
After I got warm enough by their bright Christmas fire, at 
home, to tell that story, she gave up. 

" I am glad to say that I left them all well ; the children 
shaking off their colds, and as to the gude wife, the best evi- 
dence of her robust condition is, that an evening or two before 
I left home, we walked through a snowstorm after dark to our 
neighbor Tidball's, and back after it had fallen some inches 
deep. Our excellent friend and neighbor, Mrs. Tidball, is, I 
regret to say, in very declining health — subject to frequent and 
violent attacks, which leave little hope of recovery to her wonted 
health. Her loss to my household would be irreparable. 

" And now for the news of this gay metropolis, which, like 
a country girl as you have become, I daresay you are dying to 
hear. We have had a grand levee at the Palace, where all the 
world, and I in the midst, went to enjoy the sunshine of the 
royal smile. I had the honor of attending Mrs. Pickens, the 
wife of one of my cleverest mess-mates, and a very good sample 
of the choice blood of South Carolina. 



46 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" The President, very gracious, and trying all he knew to 
appear the gentleman, rather a difficult task, by the way, for one 
who has not caught the manner in the natural way — connate. 
Well there were all the diplomats, and their valets striving each 
with the other to excel in the profusion of gold lace, and gold 
bands — the most ridiculous figures were two strapping negroes 
on the box of the Russian's coach, with coats, etc., of Russian 
cut and make, manifestly, bedizened all over with gold cords 
and tassels, and each surmounted by an immense chapeau and 
feather — I take it for granted that his excellency could get no 
white man to play the ape so broadly, and it suited Sambo's 
taste finely. 

" Then there were ladies in all sorts of dresses and colours. 
Next I took my South Carolina friends to pay our devoirs to 
Mrs. Madison, who you know is a particular pet of mine, being 
only some four-score years of this world. The old lady had 
quite as large an attendance as the President himself, and bore 
herself most queenly, receiving her guests at the rate of some 
half dozen a minute, and saying something kind and gracious to 
each. So much for New Year's day in Washington. 

" I have gotten this winter pretty well out of the world, 
having taken lodgings far off on Capitol Hill, remote from the 
court end of the city. But we have Mr. Calhoun in our mess, 
and that is no little treat — wonderful man that he is — nature 
has given him a mind of the very highest order, and it is cul- 
tivated and improved to the uttermost extent of acquirement 
and profound study. But there is a vein of hallucination per- 
vading, which unsettles the whole, and renders him worse than 
useless to the country he seems born to have controlled. I talk 
with him a great deal, for he has a passion for arguing every one 
into that belief which happens to be his own for the time being. 
His mind is like a crucible where the most perplexed theories 
are melted down at once, and resolved back into their elements. 
It is in the combination afterwards, that his great genius leads 
him astray. 

" I send to your father, by this mail, the first print of Mr. 
Rives's late speech. It will be a treat to you, I know, to read it 
to him. But it * ain't ' very long, and there are some bold 
passages delivered in a fine manly tone. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. .y 

" Please tell him if he is plagued with the Intelligencer, that 
I send it to him every day by Eliza's orders. And now I will 
prose no longer, for I daresay you are tired of all this vapid 
gossip, further than to commend my best respects to your 
Cliveden circle, and to assure you, my dear sister, that I am 
always 

" Faithfully and affectionately yours, - ; 

"J. M. MASON." 

A few weeks later, while still in Washington he writes to 
Miss Chew: 

"My Dear Sister: The best evidence one can give that a 
kindness is appreciated, is its early acknowledgment. I do so 
now in recognizing your brief page of the day before yesterday, 
enclosing one to my excellent wife. I have sent it to her, and 
with it the scrip from some hired letter-writer that was 
attached. 

" You '11 think it ungracious to speak thus of one who 
speaks well of me. But I have no tolerance for the wretched 
venal pack who haunt the purlieus of the Capitol, and are paid 
to praise or condemn, as may suit the vein of those for whom 
they pander. You '11 be amused to find how your hit at me for 
my late assault upon the Whigs is echoed in the enclosed from 
my wife. It is a good long one, and I hope will compensate you 
and the circle at Cliveden for its persual. 

" I must tell you of a very nice little wedding we had yester- 
day in our own mess. A very clever girl from South Carolina, 
who sang most charmingly for us every night — the sister of 
Mrs. Pickens of that State — well, her lover came the other day 
from South Carolina to see her, and after staying some time 
protested that he must go home, and yet he could not go with- 
out her. So after much demur, and ' dear me,' and * it will 
never do,' and all that, why we sent for a parson, who married 
them at 2 o'clock, dined them at three, and packed 'em off in the 
cars at 4 o'clock the same evening. He was the brother of Mrs. 
Calhoun, and we had none except the mess present, Mr. and 
Mrs. C, Colonel and Mrs. Pickens, with my colleagues, Mallory 
and Hunter, and myself. And that's the way they marry in 



45 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Washington. Well, there is all my gossip, which if it serves to 
amuse you, will have attained the purpose of 

" Your very affectionate brother, 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dropped by the Democratic party because of his opposi- 
tion to the system of finance recommended by the Democratic 
administration, Mr. Mason's term of service in the House of 
Representatives was limited to one Congress, and after the 
4th of March, 1839, he returned to his home in Virginia and to 
the practice of his profession. 

Several years then rolled by without making any marked 
change in his mode of life, or in the pursuits and pleasures that 
occupied and interested him. 

No personal anxiety or sorrow had yet entered into his 
experience, and the world continued for a time longer to be very 
bright and full of attractions for him. In 1844, however, the 
death of Mrs. Mason's father brought deep grief to her hus- 
band as well as to her, not only from sympathy with her, but 
from his own sense of personal loss. From boyhood his asso- 
ciation had been closely connected with Mr. Chew, and during 
the twenty-two years of his married life, he had held a position 
of as much unreserved intimacy and confidence with him as 
could have been accorded to a son. The home at Cliveden was 
now broken up, and the duties devolving upon him as one of 
Mr. Chew's executors, added not a little to the cares and re- 
sponsibilities that were steadily increasing. 

Within a few years there followed a still greater sorrow, 
when his eldest son, who had, until then, been a source of unin- 
terrupted joy to his parents, fell ill and died in his twenty-second 
year, just as he was reaching the time, so long and fondly antici- 
pated, when the father and son would be associated in the 
practice of their profession, as they had been in their pleasures, 
pursuits and interests, each with the other. 

The loss of his son was a very heavy blow, and it made a 
deep mark in the life here traced. It was soon followed by 
another almost equally heavy; the death of his father and the 
consequent breaking up of his paternal home. This event added 
still more to the cares and responsibilities that were already 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. .g 

taxing both his physical and mental powers, for again the duties 
of executor devolved chiefly upon him, and from this time the 
thought for his mother's comfort and the care of her estate was 
never lost sight of. He had been, in fact, for many years, his 
father's chief reliance in all business matters, and thus he was 
looked to and relied upon by his mother, brothers, and sisters 
as the one in authority, although one of his brothers had been 
appointed by the will co-executor of the estate. 

Exactly the same state of affairs had existed in Philadel- 
phia with regard to his wife's family for several years before 
her father's death, and he had become, practically, chiefly re- 
sponsible for the management of Mr. Chew's estate. 

Add to these cares the necessity of providing for his large 
family of children by his own exertions at the bar, and it will 
be evident that his life was a full and busy one, with many 
anxieties pressing upon him, yet he was never known to be 
gloomy or depressed; on the contrary, his presence was re- 
garded as the best tonic to encourage and strengthen the dif- 
ferent members of the family circles at Clermont, at Cliveden, 
and at Selma. One of his daughters said, in a letter written 
from Selma during a time of trouble, " We are looking eagerly 
for father's return; he comes to-morrow and he always brings 
sunshine with him." She only expressed the general feeling of 
his family and friends. 

Again has this narrative seemed to anticipate events by 
recording these family afflictions before mention has been made 
of his election to the Senate, although this really came almost 
a year before the death of young Ben. Chew Mason. It has 
been done in order to make it possible to follow, for a time, his 
political career without interruption, and at the same time, to 
present to the reader the man as he was in all the relations of 
life. 



CO LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CHAPTER III. 

Elected to Senate — Chairman of Committee on Claims — Regent of Smith- 
sonian Institute — Excitement Throughout the States Caused by Efforts to 
Exclude Slavery from Oregon — Speech on Oregon Bill — Speech Oppos- 
ing Creation of Department of Interior — House of Representatives — 
Financial Condition of the Country — Separated from Administration — 
Dropped by Democratic Party in Next Election — Extract from Speech — 
Extract from President's Message — Letter to a Constituent. 

The manuscript found among his papers, which has been 
quoted before, gives this account of his election to the Senate: 
" In January, 1847, being in Richmond on private business, the 
death of Mr. Pennybacker was announced, who died at Wash- 
ington after a brief illness. 

" My friends immediately spoke of me as his successor, and 
finding that I should be put in nomination, I left Richmond 
before I had completed the business which had called me there, 
to avoid all suspicion or intimation of soliciting the appoint- 
ment. 

"My competitors ■ were John W. Jones, Esq., of Chester- 
field, a former and justly distinguished member of Congress, 
and then Speaker of the House of Delegates, and James 
McDowell, Esq., of Rockbridge, then a member of the House 
of Representatives. I had gone from Richmond to the house of 
my father in Fairfax County, where intelligence of my election 
to the Senate by a handsome majority reached me within a few 
days. 

" At the time of my election to the Senate, I was in the en- 
joyment of an income of from my profession, was President 

of the Branch of the Farmers' Bank of Virginia, at Winchester, 
and had, in addition, the office of ' Prosecutor ' in the Superior 
Courts for the counties of Frederick, Hampshire, and Morgan. 
These offices I at once resigned. Subsequent experience has 
shown that a country practice could not be maintained, along 
with a seat in the Senate. I have thus become a Senator at the 
cost of my income from the pursuits of private life." 

The following story has been told by one of Mr. Mason's 
friends who was in Richmond advocating his election to the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. rj 

Senate : " Several members of the Legislature hesitated to vote 
for him on the ground that he was entirely a stranger, and. they 
were not willing to give their support to a man of whom they 
knew so little. This objection was answered by the proposition 
that he should be invited to meet these gentlemen at dinner on 
the following day ; which, it was said, could easily be done, since 
he was then in the city, and an opportunity could thus be 
afforded them to make his acquaintance. Arrangements were 
accordingly made for the dinner; the invitation was carried; 
and the value of such an opportunity for securing votes was 
earnestly pressed by the gentlemen to whom the writer is in- 
debted for the story; but Mr. Mason at once replied, that he 
could not consent to appear at the dinner, as it were, on ex- 
hibition, although he expressed his appreciation of the intended 
kind service." He left the city early the next morning. 

After being formally notified of his election, he returned to 
Richmond, attended to the business that had been interrupted 
by his sudden departure, and very soon afterwards, on the 25th 
of the same month, January, 1847, took his seat in the Senate. 
Here he was brought into constant contact with many of the 
men whose names are familiar to all readers of history ; among 
them should be mentioned Mr. Calhoun, of South Carolina, Mr. 
Jefferson Davis, Mr. George M. Dallas, of Philadelphia, then 
Vice-President of the United States, and John Y. Mason, of 
Virginia, who was at that time Secretary of the Navy. Many 
others might be enumerated of those who were both his political 
and his personal friends. It is not, however, possible to afford 
space in this volume for more than a passing allusion to them, 
although it may well be said that intellectual giants lived in 
those days, when Calhoun, Clay, and Webster were surrounded 
by a score of lesser lights, each one of whom would have been 
accounted brilliant, had they been compared with others of 
ordinary lustre. 

Judge A. P. Butler, of South Carolina, had entered the 
Senate only a few days before Mr. Mason's first appearance in 
it, and a few weeks afterwards Mr. Robert M. T. Hunter's term 
of service began. These three gentlemen belonged to the same 
school of thought and feeling on all political questions of in- 
terest to the South; and a warm personal friendship was soon 



C2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

established between them, a friendship that grew warmer and 
stronger as years rolled by, and continued to the close of their 
respective lives. 

Reference has already been made to the plan adopted by 
Mr. Mason and Mr. Hunter, when they had been together in the 
House of Representatives, and had formed what they called the 
" Mess." Very soon after they became Senators, they returned 
to their former arrangement for keeping house, and invited 
Judge Butler to join them. The household was organized in all 
respects as for a family home. Each one in turn took the office 
of housekeeper, and for a month gave all necessary orders, and 
kept account of all expenses, which were divided equally be- 
tween them. The size of this family party varied, quite a num- 
ber of the prominent Southern men having at different times 
belonged to it. 

Judge Butler, Mr. Hunter, and Mr. Mason kept up " The 
Mess," and continued to be thus closely associated in daily 
domestic life so long as they remained in Washington. It was Mr. 
Mason's habit to go home to Selma for short visits as frequently 
as could be done, without interfering with his public duties. He 
generally spent Saturday and Sunday at Selma, once in each 
month, and he often took with him one or more of the members 
of " The Mess." Judge Butler was his guest on several such 
occasions, and he thus became quite familiar with the home life 
at Selma. In talking to a friend in Washington of these visits, 
he said : " I have lived for years in the same house with Mason, 
and have been so intimately associated with him in many ways, 
that I really thought I knew him thoroughly, but I find I never 
fully appreciated the man until I saw him in his own house 
among his neighbors, his children, grandchildren, and servants." 

In order that Mr. Mason's political career may be appre- 
ciated by those who have come upon the stage of life long since 
the curtain of time closed the drama in which he was one of the 
actors, it may be needful to recall the fact that the subject of 
slavery was continually made the topic of discussion in both 
houses of Congress, and that the whole country was in a state 
of agitation and anxiety concerning the results of the measures 
there proposed. The condition of public feeling resembled an 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. .^ 



angry sea, lashed into fury by opposing storms brewed in dif- 
ferent latitudes by the heated passions of opposing interests. 

The records of Congress show that his influence was soon 
acknowledged and a responsible place accorded him by the 
Senate. In December, 1847, he was made Chairman of the 
Committee on Claims, and held the position until the end of 
that Congress in March, 1849, when a Whig administration 
came into power and, according to custom, the principal com- 
mittees were put under the charge of the victorious party. 

In March, 1849, he was appointed one of the Regents of 
the Smithsonian Institute; and his name appears in its reports 
as being at different times, on ten of its committees; good 
evidence of his active participation in the care and management 
of the Institute, then in its infancy, Mr. Smithson's bequest 
having been accepted in September, 1838, and the first Regents 
appointed in August, 1846. He retained, by successive reap- 
pointments, this position of Regent, so long as he remained in 
the Senate, and as the records show, was faithful in his attend- 
ance at the meetings of the Board, was present (and in the 
chair) at the meeting on February 19th, 1861, only a few weeks 
before he left his seat in the Senate never to return to it. 

At the time he entered upon his duties as a Senator, both 
houses of Congress were occupied with bills providing a ter- 
ritorial form of government for Oregon. In March, 1846, 
President Polk had, in his message, recommended prompt 
action in this matter as being necessary for the welfare of that 
territory, and in the discussion that ensued, Mr. David ^ 
Wilmot, a member of the House of Representatives from Penn- 
sylvania, had offered, as an amendment to one of the bills then 
introduced, what was afterwards known as the " Wilmot Pro- 
viso." It " provided that neither slavery nor involuntary ser- 
vitude shall ever exist in said Territory, except for crime whereof 
the party shall first be duly convicted." This amendment aroused 
much excitement, not only in the halls of legislation, but 
throughout the length and breadth of the land. 

On January 15th, 1847, only ten days before Mr. Mason 
took his seat in the Senate, a bill, that included the " Wilmot 
Proviso," had been introduced in the House of Representatives, 



54 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



and it had served as fuel for the flame that seemed then ready to 
burst out. 

In the Senate, too, a bill to establish a territorial govern- 
ment for Oregon was pending, and although it differed greatly 
from the one under consideration in the House, the excitement 
was almost as great among the Senators as among the Repre- 
sentatives. 

From the North came resolutions adopted by the State 
Legislatures, of which the following, sent by the Legislature of 
Vermont, may serve as a specimen : " Resolved, by the Senate 
and House of Representatives, That slavery is a crime against 
humanity, and a sore evil in the body politic, that was excused 
by the framers of the Federal Constitution as a crime entailed 
upon the country by their predecessors, and tolerated solely as 
a thing of inexorable necessity. 

" Resolved, That our Senators and Representatives in Con- 
gress be requested to resist by all and every constitutional 
means the extension of slavery in any manner, whether by 
annexation to slave-holding Texas of territory now free, or by 
the admission to the Union of territory already acquired, or 
which may be hereafter acquired, without an express prohibi- 
tion of slavery, either in the Constitution of each State asking 
admission, or in the act of Congress providing for such admis- 
sion." 

Petitions innumerable, expressing similar sentiments, and 
urging corresponding action, came from the towns and villages 
of the " Free States " to their respective Representatives and 
Senators, to be presented to Congress, and to be taken by the 
newspapers into the homes of the South. 

From the South came the most earnest protests against 
such action by Congress : They came in every possible form 
to the Senators and Members of the House from the Southern 
States ; came in letters from their constituents, in reports of the 
public meetings held in the Southern towns and in instructions 
received from the Legislatures of their respective States. 

No attempt can be made to give here any connected 
account of the progress of events in the fourteen years from 
1847 to 1861, during which time the subject of this memoir was 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. rr 

earnestly and persistently contending for the political rights 
of his State, and for the protection of the property of her people. 

Only occasional instances can be recorded, of the many that 
occurred, when he considered that the questions debated were 
such as involved the vital principles of the Constitution that he 
had sworn to uphold and defend. Prominent among such in- 
stances, stood the question whether the Federal Government 
had the power to make laws by which the people of the South- 
ern States would be excluded from the territories that they 
owned in common with the Northern States. 

On July 6th, 1848, a bill " to establish a territorial govern- 
ment for Oregon " being under consideration, Mr. Mason said : 

" Mr. President, it seems that the people in Oregon, finding 
themselves without other law, when the title to the territory was 
ascertained and established in the United States, assembled in 
convention and enacted laws for their temporary security. 
Amongst these laws, we have been duly informed, is one by 
which slavery, or, as it is termed, ' Involuntary servitude except 
for crime,' is forever prohibited. 

" Sir, whatever crude opinions may have been formed when 
the subject was first under consideration in this body or else- 
where, I apprehend there are none, now, who will say that the 
people of a territory belonging to the United States have a right 
propria jure to pass laws in derogation of the authority of the 
United States. If there were such opinions, they have 
been exploded, and I assume there is no Senator, and no Jurist, 
who will maintain that the people who may be found in a ter- 
ritory belonging to the United States, undertaking, for their 
own safety, or for any other reason, to legislate for that ter- 
ritory without the sanction of the Government, that such laws 
have any validity whatever against the owners of the country, 
that is to say, against the Government of the United States. 

" Well, sir, the Committee on Territories in this body, by 
instructions from the Senate, have reported a bill providing a 
government for the Territory of Oregon, under the sanction of 
what? Of the Government of the United States, whose prop- 
erty it is: And by the 12th section of the bill, the laws ex- 
isting within the limits of Oregon, be they what they may, are 



56 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



adopted and declared to be in full force for the government of 
the people of that territory. One of these laws being, that in- 
voluntary servitude, or slavery, shall be forever thereafter ex- 
cluded from the territory, and that law being adopted by the 
bill on your table, if that bill be enacted into law, it follows of 
necessity that involuntary servitude will be excluded from that 
territory by the act of the Congress of the United States; and 
thus we are called on to treat this bill, so far as regards the 
I2th section of it, precisely as if there were spread out on its 
face a prohibition in terms against slavery in that territory. Sir, 
it is right it should be clearly understood, that it should be un- 
covered, that we should expose it, so that we may defeat it if we 
can. 

" Gentlemen have said upon this floor, that the Southern 
States (where alone this institution is found) are here agitating 
this question ; that the Southern States have presented the ques- 
tion before the National Councils; and that for all the conse- 
quences that result from its agitation the South is responsible. 
Let then the truth be known, let the fact appear that a committee 
of this body have introduced a bill with this provision in it, and 
if there be offence in agitating the question, let the responsibility 
rest where of right it belongs. What we seek to do is simply to 
defeat it. We ask no legislation on the subject whatever, but, 
having stricken this clause from the bill, to leave it, as to that, 
tabula rasa. 

" Mr. President, when the Constitution was adopted in 
1788, the institution of slavery formed an important part of the 
social condition of all the Southern and many of the Northern 
States. Its existence and influence upon the future destiny of 
the South, where from climate and other causes, it was most 
likely to become permanent, was recognised and discussed with 
mature deliberation. The antagonist interests of the North and 
East were brought out in full array; and after months of con- 
sideration and debate by the wise and patriotic men then assem- 
bled; after great and mutual concessions on all sides for the 
common good, a representative weight in the Federal Councils 
was assigned to the slave population, and secured to the States 
interested, by perpetual guarantee of the Constitution. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



57 



" Sir, there are four provisions in this instrument recognis- 
ing slavery, and providing appropriate guarantees for the 
security of that institution : 

"First: In the second section of the first article, estab- 
lishing a basis of representation on three-fifths of that popula- 
tion. 

"Second: In the ninth section of the same article, prohib- 
iting the passage of any laws by Congress, prior to the year 
1808 (a period of twenty years), to prevent the further importa- 
tion of slaves by any of the States. 

" Third: In the fifth article, providing that no amend- 
ment of the Constitution shall afifect the prohibitions of the 
ninth section of the first article, prior to the year 1808; and 

" Fourth: In the second clause, second section of the 
fourth article, providing for the surrender of fugitive slaves, on 
the claim of their owners, by the State where such fugitives may 
be found. 

" These, sir, are all full and distinct recognitions of a class 
held" in bondage, and are guarantees provided by the consti- 
tutional compact — first, allowing their continued importation 
for twenty years ; second, providing for the security of their 
tenure as property; and third, and most important, admitting 
them in the scale of representation as an element of political 
power; and for each one of these guarantees, a full and ample 
equivalent was given to the Northern and Eastern States, in im- 
munities and advantages secured to them. I will instance a 
very striking one, which has been rescued from oblivion by Mr. 
Jefferson, and left under his hand as a memorial for history. It 
is taken from his unpublished manuscripts and was communi- 
cated to me many years since by the Honorable William C. 
Rives, of Virginia, my predecessor on this floor. 

" Mr. Jefferson was Minister in France whilst the Conven- 
tion sat which framed the Constitution ; and Mr. Mason, at 
whose relation he recorded this scrap of history, was a member 
of that Convention, and it is dated at the family seat of the re- 
lator, some four years only after the event. 



58 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" ' GuNSTON Hall, September 30th, 1792, 

" ' Ex relatione G. Mason. 

" ' The Constitution, as agreed to, till a fortnight before the 
Convention rose, was such an one as he would have set his hand 
and heart to : First — The President was to be elected for seven 
years, then ineligible for seven years more. Second — Rotation 
in the Senate. Third — A vote of two-thirds in the legislation on 
particular subjects, and expressly on that of navigation. The 
three New England States were constantly with us in all ques- 
tions. (Rhode Island not there, and New York seldom.) So 
that it was these three States, with the five Southern ones 
against Pennsylvania, Jersey, and Delaware. With respect to 
the importation of slaves, it was left to Congress. This dis- 
turbed the two Southernmost States, who knew that Congress 
would immediately suppress the importation of slaves. These 
two States, therefore, struck up a bargain with the three New 
England States : if they would join to admit slaves for some 
years, the two Southernmost States would join in changing the 
clause which required two-thirds of the Legislature in any vote. 
It was done. These articles were changed accordingly, and 
from that moment the two Southern States and the three 
Northern ones joined Pennsylvania, Jersey, and Delaware, and 
made the majority eight to three against us, instead of eight to 
three for us, as it had been through the whole Convention. 
Under this coalition, the great principles of the Constitution 
were changed in the last days of the Convention.' 

"Now, sir, by reference to the journal of that Convention, 
it will be found that the votes of the States implicated were 
changed as are recorded in that memorial. And what is proved 
by it? Why, first, that the right to import slaves for twenty 
years was bartered away by three of the New England States; 
and, second, that in consideration of this immunity, the whole 
right of legislation on all matters affecting commerce and navi- 
gation, which, up to that time, had been restricted to a majority 
of two-thirds, was committed to a bare numerical majority ; and 
a very bad bargain it was for the South. But ex hoc disce omnes. 
Let this one example illustrate the whole. Sir, the South has 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^g 



been faithful and true to all their constitutional engagements. 
If there has been an instance where, however onerous, the 
South has failed both in spirit and letter, to fulfil those engage- 
ments on her part, I pray gentlemen, to make it known. 

" Let us see, in reference to these guarantees respecting the 
institutions of slavery, how they have been fulfilled by the States 
now called ' Free States.' I instance the obligation on the 
States for the surrender of fugitive slaves. How has that been 
fulfilled? The clause imposing it is part of the same section, 
and in pari materia with that requiring the surrender of those 
who shall ' flee from justice. ' Sound and good faith to the 
compact, requires that each class of fugitives should be ' de- 
livered up ' as an act of State authority upon the demand of the 
* Executive ' in the one case, and on the ' claim of the party ' 
entitled, in the other. I ask of Senators representing the so 
styled ' Free States,' how are these obligations discharged? Is 
it not due to the faith of the Constitution, that each should be 
regarded as equally obligatory? And yet what is the fact? 
Why, laws are enacted in all the States, requiring of the 
Executive authority to surrender fugitives from justice upon 
the demand of the State whence they flee, and providing for 
their arrest and detention until such demand is made. But 
in the case of fugitive slaves, in none of these States is the 
like constitutional duty regarded. In some, laws are even 
enacted denying the use of their jails for the custody of such 
fugitives, and denouncing penalties upon officers if they lend 
any aid in arresting them ; whilst in all, the citizens of the South 
who go there in pursuit are insulted and defied, and even hunted 
down and killed. I have no disposition to speak in terms of 
crimination, or to excite angry or bitter feeling. But our prop- 
erty is insecure. The guarantees under which we hold it are 
habitually and wantonly disregarded, and I should be wanting 
in duty to those whose honor and interest are in part committed 
to my care, did I not make it known. Sir, all that the Southern 
States ask is, that the Constitution shall be observed in good 
faith. They have a right to demand, and they do demand, that 
the guarantees of the Constitution shall be observed and held 
sacred. 



6o I^t^E OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" Sir, I have heard Senators on this floor declare that it is 
the purpose of the Northern and Eastern States to do — what? 
To prevent the extension of what they call the ' Slave power.' 
I put it to those Senators, what do they mean by the ' Slave 
power'? In the discussion of a question like this, we have a 
right to expect that Senators should give us terms that are in- 
telligible. What then is the ' Slave power ' to which the Senator 
says an end must be put? Why, sir, it is the representative 
weight which is assigned by the Constitution to this species of 
population or property. 

" If there be any power lodged by the Constitution, in 
which it is supposed the Northern States do not share in com- 
mon with their brethren in other States, it is referable to this 
clause of the Constitution which arranges and distributes the 
representation. And it is this power, for which an ample 
equivalent has been given, which we are told now by Senators 
is not to be extended. Mr. President, this representative 
weight, assigned to the States of this Union by the Constitu- 
tion, must be preserved. If it is not preserved, I need not tell 
gentlemen what the consequences will be. It is not only neces- 
sary for the security of their property, but it is indispensable 
to their political welfare. The question of abolition, heretofore, 
has been a mere hrntnm fulmen, but it now comes in a shape that 
is no longer to be despised. The institution was first assailed 
when a majority in Congress attempted, in 1820, to prevent the 
State of Missouri from coming into this Union, unless upon 
terms derogatory to her as a Sovereign State, and directly in 
violation of the Constitution. 

" Sir, I know not how it was felt at the North ; I know not 
how far Northern politicians may have believed that their ascend- 
ency was involved in the curtailment of the slave representa- 
tion; but I know this, that in the South, it required but the 
application of the torch to kindle the whole country. They 
looked upon it as not only vital to their safety, but they looked 
upon the attempt to assail it as an insult, an indignity, offered 
to them as sovereign members of this Confederacy. 

" Sir, Mr. Jefferson lived in those days. No man, I sup- 
pose, will question his loyalty to the Constitution, and none 
his sagacity as a statesman. A letter was read on this floor, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 6l 

the other day, by the honorable Senator from South Carolina 
(Mr. Calhoun), in which Mr. Jefferson spoke his alarm at the 
portentous consequences threatened by this movement against 
the South. His mind was filled with the portents of the occa- 
sion, and his views, fully expressed in letters to his friends, 
show that in this parricidal attack he saw the days of the Con- 
stitution numbered, 

" Mr. Jefferson's opinions on the occasion cited are entitled 
to great weight. A matured statesman and philosopher, pro- 
foundly versed as well in the science of government as in the 
shoals and depths of party, he saw through the vista of years, 
this disturbing influence, ever on the alert when once aroused, 
until its wicked work was ended in the overthrow of the Con- 
stitution of his country. In a letter dated on the 13th April, 

1820, to Mr. , a gentleman now living, he says : ' The old 

schism of Federal and Republican threatened nothing, because 
it existed in every State, and united them together by the fra- 
ternism of party; but the coincidence of a marked principle, 
moral and political, with a geographical line once conceived, 
I feared would never more be obliterated from the mind; that 
it would be recurring on every occasion, and renewing irrita- 
tions until it would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred, as 
to render separation preferable to eternal discord. I have been 
amongst the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be 
of long duration. I now doubt it much ; and see the event at no 
great distance, and the direct consequence of this question.' 

" So thought and so wrote Jefferson, on the question 
which divided and threatened us then, as it divides and threat- 
tjns us now. But, sir, the difficulty was then overcome. It 
was overcome by concession made by these very Southern 
States — a great concession — a concession not only of their con- 
stitutional right, but of an expressed constitutional guarantee. 
And it was made for the sake of peace — the concession was 
made in the hope that, in so doing, the question was settled 
forever. By mutual agreement for the sake of peace, it was 
agreed to limit the right to introduce slaves in the country 
acquired from France^ to a line extended west from the south- 
ern boundary of the State of Missouri, being the parallel of 
36 degrees and 30 minutes. Sir, this was conceded for the sake 



^2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

of preserving this Union, It was a consideration as high even 
as that, and we fondly hoped that at no future day would it be 
in the power of agitators again to jeopard this Union, with all 
the consequences that must ensue, in order to drive a political 
bargain. But this has been done. The very first occasion, 
when new territory is acquired as the property of the Confed- 
eracy, this disturbing question is brought up ; and brought up 
how? Brought up by connecting it with territory lying so far 
north, that all must agree, it never can become the property of 
slaveholders. It is brought up, sir, as a precedent, because 
Senators well know what will follow. There are two other ter- 
ritories that have been recently obtained, California and New 
Mexico, and here the precedent is to apply. Sir, we must meet 
the question in limine, and if it be the judgment of the Senate, 
of a majority of the States here represented, that the settlement 
of this question in 1820 is to be disregarded, and the question 
is to be carried as a matter of absolute power, let them take 
the consequence when it comes, as come it will. 

" Mr. President, when a matter of political rule — not of 
political right, but of political rule — is once determined on, 
there is no great difficulty in finding arguments to sustain it. 
The Senator from New York (Mr. Dix), who has opened the 
debate on this question, has invoked the ordinance of 1787, for 
the government of the Northwestern Territory, and has relied 
upon it — as what? As a precedent? I should presume not — 
hardly as persuasive authority — but as an example, that 
early as the year 1787, before the foundation of this Govern- 
ment was laid, the American people, by a compact, excluded 
slavery from a large territory that belonged to the United 
States. Sir, the ordinance shows upon its face, that it was a 
matter of absolute compact between the States then confed- 
erated and the State of Virginia, which made the cession. The 
claim by many of the States to a large and unoccupied territory 
in the West, was the subject of much jealousy and dissension 
with those States whose boundaries were more circumscribed. 
Virginia, whose chartered limits once extended to the Pacific 
(then called the South Sea), had yet an immense territory 
unoccupied, lying to the northwest of the Ohio River. New 
York claimed a part of the same territory, in opposition to the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



63 



title of Virginia; while the States of Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut, in the East, and Georgia and the two Carolinas, in the 
South, each held large bodies of waste and unappropriated land. 

" It was said by the other States, that it was unjust and 
inequitable that these vast territories, the enjoyment of which 
had been secured to their respective claimants by the blood and 
treasure of all, freely lavished in the Revolutionary struggle, 
should be thus separately held; that Delaware, Maryland, and 
New Jersey had equally contributed to rescue them from the 
dominion of the British Crown, and it was oppressive and 
unjust to exclude them from the fruits of the conquest. This 
feeling, which grew as the Revolution progressed, manifested 
itself in a decided manner when the * Articles of Confederation 
and Perpetual Union,' agreed to by Congress in 1777, were 
recommended to the several States for their ratification. The 
State of Maryland refused to ratify, and placed her refusal upon 
the express ground that she was excluded from participation in 
these unoccupied lands. 

" New Jersey did ratify, but under protest, ' in the firm 
reliance that the candor and justice of the several States will, in 
due time, remove, as far as possible, the inequality which now 
subsists.' The State of Delaware also came into that Confed- 
eracy, but under like protest. Sir, it is useful to go back and 
contrast the spirit with which these States came originally 
together, in the days of the Revolution, with that which ani- 
mates some of them now. Such was the state of things when 
the territory was ceded, which is now brought up in judgment 
against Virginia and other Southern States. And what was 
done? Why the State of New York set the example, and made 
the sacrifice required on the altar of the country, for the com- 
mon good. And then followed a resolution of the Old Con- 
gress accepting this territorial grant from the State of New 
York, and inviting the other States to do the like. Sir, the next 
State in order was Virginia. There had been a strong remon- 
strance presented by Virginia to this claim of New York to the 
lands which she considered embraced within her territory of the 
Northwest, the whole of which was forgotten and laid aside ; 
and that great State, in the year 1783, gave authority to her 
representatives in Congress to convey to the United States, in 



6/1. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

absolute perpetuity, a territory that is covered by ten parallels 
of latitude, and thirteen degrees of longitude, out of which 
have been carved five of the States which are now in the Union, 
and enjoying its protection. And she did it for what? Why, 
to meet in a spirit of conciliation the concessions of other 
States, to do everything for the common good, and to accom- 
plish which, she has truly given up her birthright. 

" Contrast the language held by New York in the Act of 
1780, with the language held by her Senator on this floor now. 
Sir, who believes, when it required a spirit of such mutual for- 
bearance and concession — a spirit that was disposed to give up 
everything for the common good — in order to prevail upon the 
States to bind themselves in Articles of Confederation, that you 
can keep those States under any federated government whatever, 
when that spirit is forgotten and disregarded? Who is there 
on this floor who believes that Virginia, the largest, most popu- 
lous, and most wealthy of the Southern States, ever would have 
been a party to the Constitution, if there had been a provision 
ingrafted in it forbidding an extension of any part of her popu- 
lation to any territory that might hereafter become the property 
of the United States? No one. And if she would not then, 
and believes now, that such extension is her constitutional 
right, who believes that she, or any of her Southern sister 
States, can remain in the Confederacy, when the barriers that 
had been erected for their protection have been ruthlessly 
broken down and disregarded? 

" Every movement that is made afifecting the rights and 
power of the Southern States in reference to this population, is 
looked upon there as in derogation of their exclusive authority. 
They are sensitive on this subject. It forms a part of their most 
valuable property. It is a great element of their political power, 
and its proper management is essential to their safety. Yet 
honorable Senators here, as I understand them, looking upon the 
powers of this Government as unlimited, perfectly without con- 
trol, approach this subject as they would approach an ordinary 
subject of legislation, and assert a right to control it, whether 
with or without the assent of the States where alone the insti- 
tution is found. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



65 



" Is not all power that is not granted to the General Gov- 
ernment reserved to the States? And do you find anything in 
the Constitution which authorizes any interference on the part 
of the General Government with the domestic institutions, and 
the regulation of the internal affairs of the State? 

" Suffer me now, sir, to sum up the argument I have 
advanced. This institution existed when the Constitution was 
formed. It was recognized, it was legislated upon, it was made 
the subject of concession on one side, and an equivalent on the 
other. There was assigned to it a representative weight, as an 
element of political power in the Southern States. It was 
guaranteed to those States by the Constitution, and it can 
never be tolerated that a power in Congress to legislate for the 
territories — a power deduced from necessity only, and tempo- 
rary in its exercise (for it ceases when the territory becomes a 
State), should be wrested from its legitimate ends, and made to 
unsettle the balances of the Constitution and to destroy its guar- 
antees. To give it such direction would be an outrage of all 
just legal construction, and of every sense of political right in 
the States interested. 

" Power, Mr. President, is never appeased by concession ; 
and we are now reaping the bitter fruits of the concession then 
made by the South. How strikingly is illustrated, by this 
renewed struggle, the predictions of Mr. Jefferson in his letter 
of April, 1820, in which speaking of the Missouri question, he 
says : ' The coincidence of a marked principle, moral and polit- 
ical, with a geographical line once conceived, I feared would 
never more be obliterated from the mind; that it would be 
recurring on every occasion and renewing irritations, until it 
would kindle such mutual and mortal hatred as to render sepa- 
ration preferable to eternal discord.' 

" Sir, the prophecy is fulfilled. There is a party organized, 
or in course of organization at the North, lifting itself erect on 
the pending canvass for the Presidency, on whose banner is 
inscribed, as the sole rallying cry, ' Destruction to the Slave 
Power,' 

" We have seen the preliminary chart of that party in the 
manifesto of its convention recently held at Utica, in New 



(,(, LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

York, in which all parties are invited, at the North, to abandon 
all subjects of former dissension and to unite in a common cru- 
sade to break down the institutions of the South. Sir, the Sena- 
tor from New York (Mr. Dix) stands the exponent of that party 
in this Senate-house — a party whose mission is, to divide the 
North and South on this question of the so-called " Slave 
power." Already we have three remarkable documents shad- 
owing forth their plan of campaign. 

" The first is a letter from Martin Van Buren addressed in 
reply to the ' delegates of the city and county of New York ' to 
the Utica Convention, sketching in advance the principles and 
policy of the party in embryo. 

" Next comes the speech of the honorable Senator from 
New York, following step by step the landmarks there laid 
down, and denouncing any extension of slavery into the terri- 
tories where it is not now found, as of ' eml tendency, wrong in 
itself, and repugnant to the humanity and the civilization of the 
age.' 

" And last, the manifesto of the Utica Convention. I trust, 
sir, that Senators on all sides have read this paper with atten- 
tion, because it develops in extenso, the principles and purposes 
of this new Northern party, avows its objects to be, to get pos- 
session of the Government of the Union for the purpose of de- 
stroying the political weight of the ' Slave representation ' and 
assigns their appropriate duties to its recognized leaders. And, 
more than all, it denounces the old and healthy issues which 
have heretofore divided parties, as no longer worthy of consid- 
eration, and calls upon former friends and former foes, to unite 
alike in a great concerted effort to break down the barriers of 
the Constitution. 

" To prove this, sir, I may be pardoned for making a single 
extract from the document, where it will be found under the 
head of ' Duty of the Free States,' and in these words : 

" ' If, from these, or any other causes, the people of the Free 
States have suffered in the estimation of the South, or of the 
world, the time has now come when they owe it to themselves, 
and to the nation, to redeem their character from this reproach. 
Both the late political parties have the opportunity to do, and 
they are called upon to do this : they may unite in the effort 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



67 



without any abandonment of their distinctive principles. The 
old issues, which for the last twenty years have divided them, 
are now settled or set aside; a new issue has been presented, in 
which all minor diflferences — and in which differences that, 
under other circumstances, would be important — are merged 
and swallowed up. 

" * It is important, too, that this effort should now be made, 
and that, if possible, it should be made to succeed. Resist the 
beginning, is the maxim of political, not less than moral science. 
This is the first time, since the formation of the Government, 
that the slave power, whilst retaining its distinct political asso- 
ciations with the two great national parties, has been able to 
seize and to sway the sceptres of each. If the people of the 
Free States understand and perform their duty, such an exhi- 
bition will never again be witnessed.' 

" Mr. President, these are words of fearful omen. We are 
aware that ten States of this Confederacy have, through their 
legislative assemblies, called upon their representatives in Con- 
gress to maintain this interdict against the extension of South- 
ern institutions to the new territories. And here we have a 
proclamation by a party, said to be of formidable numbers, in 
the great State of New York, separating themselves from all 
former political alliance, arrayed under leaders of known dis- 
tinction, burying all former topics of political dissension, and 
proclaiming as the great bond of future union, ' exterminating 
war to slave-power.' And for what objects is a party to be 
thus marshalled? For the public weal, the common good? Sir, 
let not words so dear to the Republicans be profaned by such 
unholy perversion. To advance the cause of freedom and free 
government? No, no ! When was freedom born of tyranny, 
whether it be the tyranny of one or of many? 

" The evil day looked for and dreaded by the sages and 
patriots of the land, dawns darkly through this proclamation — 
when a line shall be drawn between the North and the South, 
and a party resting on geographical division alone shall march 
up to it, as the line of power. This is the party which the 
Utica manifesto seeks to rally. 

" But, sir, I pursue this ungrateful theme no further. I yet 
confide in the regenerative spirit of Republican virtue at the 



^g LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



North to consign to deserved obloquy this first attempt to array 
the Republics of the Confederacy against each other in a sheer 
struggle for power." 

It is interesting to note his sensitiveness regarding the limi- 
tations of the power entrusted to the Federal Government. 
Possibly there may be some who will recognize, in these later 
days, the truth and justice of what he repeatedly said when he 
was contesting inch by inch the extension of this power. An 
instance of this occurred on March 3d, 1849, when a bill was in- 
troduced to " Create a new Executive Department of the United 
States to be called the Department of the Interior, the head of 
which Department shall be called the Secretary of the Interior." 
Mr, Mason then said : " Mr. President, I can not but look on 
this bill as one that will make a material change in the admin- 
istration of the affairs of this Government. A bill comes into 
the Senate, vital in its character and proposing to make a 
change in the existing offices of the Government. Was not the 
Government devised, planned, and organized to manage the 
exterior, the foreign relations of the States? 

" The design evidently was to confine the Federal Govern- 
ment, as far as possible, to the management of foreign relations 
in the four great departments of the Government. The State, 
Treasury, War, and Navy were organized with that view. But, 
sir, none who have watched the course of the Government to 
any purpose can have failed to see that a policy has grown up 
whose object has been, as far as possible, to bring within the 
power of the Federal Government the management of the 
Interior and industrial pursuits alluded to by the Honorable 
Senator who has just taken his seat (Niles, of Connecticut). 
These industrial pursuits of our people, it has been sought to 
bring within the vortex of Federal action. 

" There can be no question that if the object is merely to 
provide means of doing the work, it can be far better done by 
keeping the officers, as they are now, separate, and to a certain 
extent independent, giving an assistant to each, subject to 
appeal to the head of the Bureau. It is said that this measure 
is recommended by the Secretary of the Treasury. Yes, sir; 
and it has been recommended from the days of Mr. Madison 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



69 



and Alexander Hamilton. The very fact that it has never been 
adopted, though so long recommended and from such high 
sources, shows a distrust of the American people of the safety 
of giving such a State capacity to this Federal power. 

"Are we to increase this central power? More especially, 
are we, who belong to the South — who have very little more 
interest in this country than to have the protection of our inde- 
pendence, with the other States, from whom a great part of the 
revenue is drawn, and to whom very little of it is returned ; who 
pay everything to Federal power and receive nothing for it — are 
we, at this day, to give our sanction, under whatever auspices it 
may be presented, to this vital change in the Federal Govern- 
ment? 

" If this thing is done, it is an ' entering wedge.' " 

He then moved the bill be laid on the table, and asked the 
yeas and nays upon that motion. The vote was taken with the 
result, yeas 22, nays 31. 

In the afternoon session of the same day, he made another 
effort in the same direction, by moving to amend the bill by 
striking out the words " Create a new Executive Department 
of the United States to be called the Department of the Interior, 
the head of which shall be called the ' Secretary of the Inte- 
rior,' " and in lieu thereof inserting, " Appoint an officer to be 
called an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury." He supported 
the amendment and further said : " He has read the history of 
his country to little purpose who does not know that there are 
two great parties in this country; those who would extend the 
powers of the Federal Government, and those who would con- 
fine them. Sir, in the school in which I have been reared, and 
which, I trust, I shall ever reHgiously venerate, I have had im- 
pressed upon me a distrust of every measure which tends to 
strengthen the area of Federal power. I would hold this Gov- 
ernment strictly to the powers clearly granted, and restrain it, 
as far as practicable, from interference with the people in their 
domestic pursuits. 

" I have been taught, sir, that the State governments are 
to administer in our domestic relations ; and that the operations 
of the Federal Government were intended chiefly for the regula- 
tion of our exterior and foreign relations. And the lesson hai 



jQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

been impressed upon me by my knowledge of what has beciA 
attempted over and over again by those who lean to an exten- 
sion of Federal power. 

" Sir, how is the country divided? Look at it, I beseecn 
you. Is it not manifest that the planting States, those which 
grow the articles of export, pay the taxes ; and those which 
enjoy the carrying trade, and conduct our foreign commerce, 
which are engaged in manufactures, pay but little tax, while 
they revel and grow rich by the expenditures of the Govern- 
ment? What is the tendency of this? Why, it leads those who 
thus profit, to bring everything they can within the vortex of 
the Federal Government." 

This amendment was rejected and the bill was passed. It 
was not, however, done by a sectional vote; the only political 
parties then known were the Whigs and the Democrats. Is it 
not worthy of note that when Congress convened in the follow- 
ing December, a third party had been organized which was 
entirely confined to the Northern States? In the lists of the 
members of Congress, given in the Congressional Globe of that 
year (1849), thirteen members of the House of Representatives 
and two of the Senators are called " Free-Soilers." Salmon P. 
Chase, of Ohio, and John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, were the 
two Senators, and David ^. Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, was one 
of the thirteen in the House. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. yj 



CHAPTER IV. 

Compromise of 1850 — Mr. Calhoun's Prophecy — Mr. Mason Member of 
Committee of Thirteen— He Dissents from Report of Committee— The 
Union Party and the Secessionists. Reply to Invitation to Address Mass- 
meeting at Newmarket. California Admitted into Union — Protest of 
Southern Senators— Fugitive Slave Law — Extract from Diary— Re-elected 
to Senate — Chairman of Committee on Foreign Relations — New England 
Fisheries. 

The eflfort to exclude slavery from the Western territories 
caused continuous excitement throughout the country, and 
engendered a feeling of hostility between the Northern and 
the Southern sections of the Union that increased in strength 
and bitterness as time passed. 

The refusal by the Northern States to comply with the 
obligation regarding the rendition of fugitive slaves, imposed 
upon them by the Constitution, had become another source of 
constantly increasing grievance to the South ; and when the 
31st Congress assembled, in December, 1849, there was a gen- 
eral recognition of the necessity for some legislation that would 
avert the impending crisis. 

Many looked to Mr. Clay, the " Great Pacificator," with 
anxious expectations of relief to be afforded by the measures 
he should propose. The famous Compromise of 1850 has been 
ascribed to him, and doubtless he was chiefly responsible for it. 
Those at all familiar with the political world of that day are 
aware of the fact that Mr. Mason was one of those who differed 
entirely from that great statesman regarding both the propriety 
of the concessions then made by the South, and the results to be 
anticipated from them. 

On January 29th, 1850, Mr. Clay introduced in the Senate 
a series of resolutions intended to cover all the questions under 
discussion, and other Senators offered numerous modifications 
and amendments, but the debate waxed warmer and served 
only to increase and make more intense the feeling of hostility 
between the two sections. 

It was in the midst of this critical period that Mr. Cal- 
houn's voice was hushed to be heard no more in the councils 



72 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



of his country. On March 4th of this year, 1850, he appeared 
for almost the last time in the Senate, and said he had hoped 
to speak on the questions then pending, but, finding he had not 
sufficient strength to do so, he had committed to paper what he 
wished to say and would ask his friend from Virginia (Mr. 
Mason) to read to the Senate what he had written. This 
request was, of course, complied with. The fact that Mr. 
Mason was selected to read this speech is sufficient evidence 
that it touched responsive chords in his mind and heart, and 
thus it seems particularly appropriate to give here a brief 
extract which describes the condition of the South, as it was 
understood by this distinguished statesman : 

" I have believed from the first," wrote Mr. Calhoun, " that 
the agitation of the subject of slavery would, if not prevented 
by some timely and eflfective measure, end in dissolution. The 
agitation has been permitted to proceed, until it has reached a 
period when it can no longer be disguised or denied that the 
Union is in danger. How can the Union be preserved? The 
first question presented for consideration, in the investigation 
I propose to make is, ' What is it that has endangered the 
Union?' To this question there can be but one answer: that 
the immediate cause is the almost universal discontent which 
pervades all the States composing the southern section of the 
Union. It is a great mistake to suppose that it originated with 
demagogues, or with the disappointed ambition of certain poli- 
ticians, who resorted to it as a means of retrieving their fortunes. 
The cause of this discontent will be found in the belief of the 
people of the Southern States that they can not remain, as things 
are now, consistently with honor and safety, in the Union." 

Among the fragmentary memoranda found with Mr. 
Mason's papers, from which quotations have already been made, 
the following is interesting in this connection. It is in Mr. 
Mason's handwriting. In the last illness of Mr. Calhoun, and 
not long before his death, sitting with him in his chamber, the 
conversation turned on the various propositions and the ques- 
tions before the Senate and on the subject of slavery, as arising 
out of the acquisition of California and New Mexico. In this 
conversation he said : " The Union is doomed to dissolution, 
there is no mistaking the signs. I am satisfied in my judgment, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



73 



even were the questions which now agitate Congress settled to 
the satisfaction and with the concurrence of the Southern States, 
it would not avert, or materially delay, the catastrophe. 

" I fix its probable occurrence within twelve years or three 
Presidential terms. You, and others of your age, will probably 
live to see it; I shall not. The mode by which it will be done 
is not so clear ; it may be brought about in a manner that none 
now foresee. But the probability is, it will explode in a Presi- 
dential election." 

Mr. Calhoun died in Washington, March 31st, 1850. Mr. 
Mason was appointed as chairman of the Senate Committee of 
Arrangements for the funeral, and, accompanied by several' 
other members of the committee, he took the body to South 
Carolina for interment. 

So critical was the situation in the Senate acknowledged to 
be, that it was thought necessary to effect an agreement that no 
measures involving the subject of slavery should be discussed 
during the absence of the committee. Upon their return the 
debate was resumed and was continued until some time in 
April, when it was arranged to refer all questions connected 
with slavery to a committee of thirteen, of which Mr. Qay was 
made chairman, and Mr. Mason one of its members. 

On May 8th, Mr. Clay reported from that committee the 
measures that made up the compromise. " Many Senators 
desired to consider these measures separately, but the com- 
mittee had decided to embrace them all in one bill of four parts, 
which bill has been commonly known as the ' Omnibus bill.' " 
The reader is referred to the Congressional Globe (31st Con- 
gress, ist session, May 8th), for the full report made by Mr. 
Clay, with the remarks he then made. 

Upon their conclusion Mr. Mason said : '* Mr. President, 
I rise to make a few remarks upon the subject of the report 
just presented by the distinguished chairman of the committee. 
The honorable gentleman has done no more than justice — full 
and proper justice to every member of it — certainly so far as I 
am informed. I went into that committee, sir, with the earnest 
hope that it was in the power of the committee to recommend 
such an adjustment of the great questions committed to them 
as would be satisfactory to the States. None can regret more 



74 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



deeply than I do that their counsels did not so result. I need 
not say to you, sir, or to the Senators around me, that the sub- 
ject committed to them was environed with difficulties ; but I 
fear, so far as I am informed of what is expected of the repre- 
sentatives of the Southern States upon this question, that those 
difficulties, by the report submitted, have not been removed. 
The language of the report, Mr. President, shows that, except- 
ing a single one of the subjects considered by them, there was 
not unanimity. That one was the construction of the compact 
under which the State of Texas was annexed. It was my mis- 
fortune not to be in the majority who made this report, or that 
has recommended the measures to be adopted. I do not mean 
to go into that now, sir. It may become my duty to do so in 
the deliberations of the Senate, when they shall take up the 
various modifications which these measures are to undergo, if 
it then shall be found that we can fix upon some plan satisfac- 
tory to the country. I desire only to state, because of the 
gravity and importance of the question to be considered, hum- 
ble as I am upon this floor, but representing one of the States 
most deeply interested in the question involved, that I do not 
constitute one of the majority of the committee. I deeply and 
earnestly regret it, sir, that I could not either concur in the 
measures recommended by the committee — at least those meas- 
ures which were of the chief importance — and that I could not 
recommend any conclusion attained by the committee, or the 
reasons which led them to it. I do not mean to detain the 
Senate, I wish merely to put myself right in relation to the 
measures proposed." 

The most important measures recommended in this report, 
were, that California should be forthwith admitted into the 
Union with the boundaries she had proposed ; and that there 
should be " more efifectual enactments of law to secure the 
prompt delivery of persons bound to service or labor in one 
State under the laws thereof, who escape into another State." 

The bill to admit California was immediately taken up and 
for more than three months was the chief subject of considera- 
tion and of discussion, not only in both Houses of Congress, but 
in every little town or hamlet and at the country post-offices 
throughout the Southern States. Wherever two or three peo- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



75 



pie gathered together the one absorbing topic of common inter- 
est was the same. Everywhere meetings were held for the pur- 
pose of considering the measures proposed by the Committee of 
Thirteen, and many resolutions were adopted similar in their 
tone, to those passed by the Legislature of Mississippi, which 
are here quoted as expressing the opinions, with some few 
exceptions, of the people of the South, as well as those of their 
Senators and Representatives in Congress. 

It is true that there were some in the South who thought 
it possible to preserve the Union by yielding their right to share 
equally with the Northern States the enjoyment of the terri- 
tories as being the property of all the States equally, and who 
were, therefore, in favor of the proposed compromise. The 
number of these grew gradually smaller as time rolled by, 
although it was large enough in 1850 to be recognized as a dis- 
tinct party, known as the Unionists, in opposition to the so- 
called Secessionists, whose position was clearly defined by the 
Virginia Legislature in the resolutions adopted in 1847, and 
more than once afterwards repeated. The Legislature of Miss- 
issippi simply stated the same general principles and pointed 
out their application to the case then presented to the country, 
when it 

" Resolved, That the policy heretofore pursued by the Gov- 
ernment of the United States in regard to said territory (Cali- 
fornia) in refusing to provide territorial government therefor, 
has been, and is, eminently calculated to promote, and is about 
to effect, indirectly, the cherished objects of the Abolitionists, 
which cannot be accomplished by direct legislation, without a 
plain and palpable violation of the Constitution of the United 
States : 

"Resolved, That the admission of California into the Union 
as a Sovereign State, with its present Constitution, the result of 
the aforesaid false and unjust policy of the Government of the 
United States, would be an act of fraud and oppression on the 
rights of the people of the slaveholding States, and it is the 
sense of this Legislature that our Senators and Representa- 
tives should, to the extent of their ability, resist it by all hon- 
orable and constitutional means." 

Mr. Mason was frequently called a Secessionist. The follow- 



76 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



ing letter speaks for itself: Might he not well have quoted 
Patrick Henry, and said : " If this be treason, make the most 
of it"? 

" Washington, July 23d, 1850. 
" To David Hedrick and others, Committee: 

" Gentlemen : — I have your letter of the 9th, as a com- 
mittee of citizens of New Market and its vicinity, inviting me to 
attend and to address a ' Union Mass Meeting ' to be held at 
New Market on Saturday, the 27th inst., ' to take into consid- 
eration the plan submitted by the Committee of Thirteen now 
before the Senate of the United States for the adjustment of 
the unhappy difficulties existing between the North and the 
South on the subject of slavery and all other subjects connected 
with the same.' 

" Could I be absent from my place at Washington, I should 
gladly embrace the opportunity, afforded by your kind invita- 
tion, to meet my fellow-citizens of Shenandoah in counsel, and 
to lay before them my views at large, on the great and moment- 
ous questions now depending before the country. 

" But my first duty is to be discharged here, and until 
these questions are disposed of, no representative from the 
South can be safely absent from the post assigned him. I 
regret, therefore, that I can not be with you on the 27th. 

" That our glorious and once happy Union is brought into 
serious danger by the perverse and wicked counsels of those 
who seek to destroy the equality of the States, and to break up 
the social organization of our Southern institutions, we have 
been again solemnly warned by our own General Assembly dur- 
ing the past winter, reviewing and reaffirming the deliberate pos- 
ture of resistance it was forced to assume in 1847. In the lan- 
guage of our Legislature, speaking to their sister States the 
voice of Virginia, * Her loyalty to the Union is no matter of 
empty profession ; it is stamped upon every page of her history. 
No State has done as much to form the Union ; none is pre- 
pared to do more to perpetuate it, in the spirit in which it was 
formed, and in which alone it can be preserved. But loyal as 
she is, and ever has been, it were a fatal error to suppose that 
Virginia will ever consent that that Union, to which she has 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



77 



looked as a source of happiness and honor, shall be converted 
into an instrument of degradation and oppression.' 

" Every true son of our noble Commonwealth will stand 
by the General Assembly, in support of the principles and 
sentiments thus announced; I am sure none with more 
unwavering devotion than my fellow-citizens to whom I address 
this letter. 

" In the present unhappy dissensions which divide the 
country, and to which you have alluded, I can only say that no 
one is prepared to go farther than I in efiforts to compose and 
settle them forever. But this can be no better effected by 
evasive adjustment, than by peremptory submission to lawless 
power. 

" In regard to the bill reported to the Senate by the Com- 
mitttee of Thirteen, it is a measure yet depending, and it is im- 
possible to say what changes it may undergo before a final vote 
is ordered. If it ultimately assumes such a form, as under its 
operation to ensure the just equality of all the States, in the 
benefits as well as in the burdens of a common government, it 
shall receive at my hands a cordial and zealous support — if 
otherwise, clearly and decidedly not. 

" With great respect, I am, Gentlemen, 
" Your friend and fellow-citizen, 

"JAMES M. MASON." 

History records the adoption of the compromise measures, 
and the admission of California into the Union as a State on 
August 13th, 1850. 

The next day, Mr. R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, said in 
the Senate : " I rise not to present a petition, but to address 
a motion to the courtesy of the Senate — a motion which I am 
aware I can not make as a matter of right and parliamentary 
privilege. It is to ask that a protest, which has been prepared 
and signed by ten members of this body, against the passage 
of the bill admitting California into the Union as a State, which 
passed yesterday, may be received and spread upon the Jour- 
nals of the Senate. We ask it, because we deem it one of the 
most, if not perhaps the most important measure that has 
passed during our experience here, and we wish to give what- 



y8 J-'IFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

ever emphasis we legitimately can to our opposition to it. We 
wish, so far as we can, to break the force of a precedent, which 
we regard as mischievous and dangerous, for the admission of 
States into this Union. I ask that it may be read and spread 
upon the Journals of the Senate." After considerable oppo- 
sition on the part of several of the Senators, this protest was 
received and read. It is given as copied from the Congress 
sional Globe: 

Protest Against the Passage of the Bill Admitting 
California as a State. 

" We, the undersigned Senators, deeply impressed with the 
importance of the occasion, and with a solemn sense of the 
responsibility under which we are acting, respectfully submit 
the following protest against the bill admitting California as a 
State into this Union, and request that it may be entered upon 
the Journal of the Senate. We feel that it is not enough to 
have resisted in debate alone a bill so fraught with mischief to 
the Union and the States which we represent, with all the re- 
sources of argument which we possessed ; but that it is also due 
to ourselves, the people whose interests have been intrusted 
to our care, and to posterity, which even in its most distant 
generations may feel its consequences, to leave in whatever 
form may be most solemn and enduring, a memorial of the 
opposition which we have made to this measure, and of the rea- 
sons by which we have been governed, upon the pages of a 
Journal which the Constitution requires to be kept so long as 
the Senate may have an existence. We desire to place on 
record the reasons upon which we are willing to be judged by 
generations living and yet to come, for our opposition to a bill 
whose consequences may be so durable and portentous as to 
make it an object of deep interest to all who may come after 
us. We have dissented from this bill because it gives the 
sanction of law, and thus imparts validity to the unauthorized 
action of a portion of the inhabitants of California, by which an 
odious discrimination is made against the property of the fif- 
teen slaveholding States of the Union, who are thus deprived 
of that position of equality which the Constitution so mani- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



79 



festly designs, and which constitutes the only sure and stable 
foundation on which this Union can repose. 

" Because the right of the slaveholding States to a com- 
mon and equal enjoyment of the territory of the Union has 
been defeated by a system of measures which, without the 
authority of precedent, of law, or of the Constitution, were 
manifestly contrived for that purpose, and which Congress 
must sanction and adopt, should this bill become a law. 

" In sanctioning this system of measures, this Government 
will admit that the inhabitants of its territories, whether perma- 
nent or transient, whether lawfully or unlawfully occupying the 
same, may form a State without the previous authority of law; 
without even the partial security of a territorial organization 
formed by Congress ; without any legal census or other efficient 
evidence of their possessing the number of citizens necessary to 
authorize the representation which they may claim ; and without 
any of those safeguards about the ballot-box which can only be 
provided by law, and which are necessary to ascertain the true 
sense of a people. It will admit, too, that Congress, having 
refused to provide a Government except upon the condition of 
excluding slavery by law, the Executive branch of this Gov- 
ernment may, at its own discretion, invite such inhabitants to 
meet in convention, under such rules as it or its agents may 
prescribe, and to form a Constitution affecting not only their 
own rights, but those also of fifteen States of the Confederacy, 
by including territory with the purpose of excluding those 
States from its enjoyment, and without regard to the natural 
fitness of boundary, or any of the considerations which should 
properly determine the limits of a State. It will also admit 
that the convention thus called into existence by the Executive 
may be paid by him out of the funds of the United States, with- 
out the sanction of Congress ; in violation not only of the plain 
provisions of the Constitution, but of those principles of 
obvious propiiety which would forbid any act calculated to 
make that convention dependent upon it ; and last, but not least, 
in the series of measures which this Government must adopt 
and sanction in passing this bill, is the release of the authority 
of the United States by the Executive alone to a Government 
thus formed, and not presenting even sufficient evidence of its 



So LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

having the assent of a majority of the people for whom it was 
designed. In view of all these considerations, the undersigned 
are constrained to believe that this Government could never be 
brought to admit a State presenting itself under such circum- 
stances, if it were not for the purpose of excluding the people of 
the slaveholding States from all opportunity of settling with 
their property in that territory. 

" Because to vote for a bill passed under such circumstances 
would be to agree to a principle which may exclude forever 
hereafter, as it does now, the States which we represent, from 
all enjoyment of the common territory of the Union ; a principle 
which destroys the equality of their States in the Confederacy, 
the equal dignity of those whom they represent as men and as 
citizens in the eye of the law, and their equal title to the pro- 
tection of the Government and the Constitution. 

" Because all the propositions have been rejected which 
have been made to obtain either a recognition of the rights of 
the slaveholding States to a common enjoyment of all the ter- 
ritory of the United States, or to a fair division of that territory 
between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States of the 
Union — every effort having failed which has been made to 
obtain a fair division of the territory proposed to be brought in 
as the State of California. 

" But, lastly, we dissent from this bill, and solemnly protest 
against its passage, because, in sanctioning measures so con- 
trary to former precedent, to obvious policy, to the spirit and 
intent of the Constitution of the United States, for the purpose 
of excluding the slaveholding States from the territory thus to 
be erected into a State, this Government in effect declares that 
the exclusion of slavery from the territory of the United States 
is an object so high and important as to justify a disregard not 
only of all the principles of sound policy, but also of the Con- 
stitution itself. Against this conclusion we must now and 
forever protest, as it is destructive of the safety and liberties 
of those whose rights have been committed to our care, fatal to 
the peace and equality of the States which we represent, and 
must lead, if persisted in, to the dissolution of the Confederacy, 
in which the slaveholding States have never sought more than 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. gl 

equality, and in which they will not be content to remain with 
less. 

" Signed, 

"J. M. MASON, Virginia. 

" R. M. T. HUNTER, Virginia. 

"A. P. BUTLER, South Carolina. 

"R. B. BARNWELL, South Carolina. 

"H. L. TURNEY, Tennessee. 

" PIERRE SOULE, Louisiana. 

"JEFFERSON DAVIS, Mississippi. 

" DAVID R. ATCHI^SON, Missouri. 

" JACKSON MORTON, Florida. 

" D. L. YULEE, Florida." 

On the day after this protest was presented, the Senate, at 
the request of Mr. Mason, took up the " Fugitive Slave Bill " 
which he had introduced on a previous occasion, and of which he 
had then said : " I introduced the bill here to discharge a duty 
which I owe to the people whom I represent, and in obedience 
to instructions of the General Assembly of Virginia." * * " I 
am free to confess," he continued, " that although the bill and 
the amendments have been framed with some care, and the 
amendments have met the approbation of the Committee on the 
Judiciary, I have little hope that it will afford the remedy it is 
intended to afiford. I fear it will be found that even this law will 
be of little worth in securing the rights of those for whose 
benefit it is intended, and yet, if the remedies proposed could be 
enforced, they would be found of exceeding value and impor- 
tance, not alone to the people of the State which I represent, 
but to all the Southern States now holding the African race in 
bondage." 

It should be here noted: this bill was not only in accord- 
ance with the compromise just agreed upon, but it was in fact 
provided to carry into effect one of the provisions of the said 
compromise. It has been, nevertheless, held up to condemna- 
tion, even to execration, by the people of the North; and Mr. 
Mason was specially odious to the Abolitionists, because he was 
generally known as its author. 

The following clipping from an English newspaper gives 



82 I^IFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

interesting information concerning this bill, which, after much 
earnest and angry debate, was adopted by the Senate on August 
26th, and by the House of Representatives, on September 12th, 
1850. There is strong circumstantial evidence this article was 
contributed by Mr. Mason, although his name was not given 
when it appeared (during the war) in the form of a 

Letter to the Editor of " The Index." 

" Sir: So much having of late been said about Mr. 
Mason's connection with the Fugitive Slave Law, I beg to send 
you the following brief sketch of the true history of that law, 
and its real authorship, as derived from the most authentic 
records : 

" The Constitution of the United States is the author of the 
so-called Fugitive Slave Law. It contains a clause stipulating 
between the States, parties to it, for the surrender of fugitives 
escaping from one State into the jurisdiction of another State, 
and without which such fugitives could not be reclaimed; that 
is to say: 

" First. Felons, called ' fugitives from justice.' 

" Second. Apprentices or indentured servants, called per- 
sons ' held to service.' 

" Third. Slaves, called persons ' held to labour.' 

" This stipulation is found in Article IV, Section 2, of the 
Constitution, in the following words : 

" ' A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or 
other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found in another 
State, shall, on demand of the Executive of the State from which 
he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having 
jurisdiction of the crime. 

" 'No person held to service or labour in one State, under 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of 
any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service 
or labour, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to 
whom such service or labour may be due.' 

" This provision, it is seen, makes it incumbent to ' deliver 
up ' a fugitive of either class to the jurisdiction from which he 
fled. The Constitution went into operation in 1787, but no case 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



S3 



arose calling for the aid of this stipulation until 1792-93, and it 
arose then in the case of a fugitive from justice. The Governor 
of one of the States desired to reclaim a person guilty of felony 
who was found in another State. The Governor of the State 
where the fugitive sought refuge decided that he had no power 
either to apprehend or to ' deliver him up.' An appeal was then 
made to the Executive of the United States, as a duty devolving 
on it under the Constitution, General Washington being then 
President. The question was referred by him to the Attorney- 
General of the United States, as its law adviser. The Attorney- 
General reported that, although the duty was imperative, the 
Constitution required legislation to give it effect, and that with- 
out such legislation the Government was without power in the 
premises. 

" President Washington laid this report before Congress, 
with a recommendation that proper legislation should be sup- 
plied to give effect to the Constitution in this regard. No 
difficulty had arisen at that day about the surrender of slaves 
escaping from their masters, ' Runaways,' as they were called in 
common parlance; they were taken by their masters wherever 
found, without hindrance, and with the aid, if necessary, of the 
vicinage. 

" Congress, on the President's recommendation, took up 
the subject, and finding that three classes of fugitives were pro- 
vided for in the same Article of the Constitution, enacted a law 
embracing the three classes as in pari materia, by the act en- 
titled, ' An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons 
escaping from the Service of their Masters,' approved by Presi- 
dent Washington, February 12th, 1793. 

" This Act, the first passed for the recovery of fugitive 
slaves, provided for their arrest by the owner in whatsoever 
State such fugitive was found, and imposed penalties on any 
who should obstruct or hinder such arrest, or rescue the fugitive 
from the custody of his owner, or should harbor or conceal him. 

" If there be any curiosity to establish the authorship of the 
so-called ' Fugitive Slave Law,' it is thus historically traced. 
The Constitution of the United States is the author of the princi- 
ple of the reclamation of the slave, and General Washington, by 
his recommendation to Congress, was the author of the law to 



84 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



give effect to the principle, the Constitution being powerless 
propria vigore. 

" Mr. Mason, thus, was not the author of this law, but he 
was the author of a subsequent law of Congress, passed in 1850, 
more effectually to carry into effect the provisions of the Act 
of i793> which the title of the Act of 1850 fully discloses, it 
being entitled, ' An Act to amend and supplementary to an Act 
Entitled An Act respecting Fugitives from Labour and Justice,' 
approved February 12th, 1793." 

It would be deeply interesting to study closely the progress 
of legislation during the next eight years, to trace back to their 
respective sources the various measures proposed, and to find, 
in the speeches made in the Senate, the arguments urged by the 
advocates of each measure and the evil results predicted from 
them by their opponents. Such study might reveal much that 
is not generally found in the histories that have been written, 
and might place beyond further question the wisdom and fore- 
sight of those Southern Senators who, before the close of that 
decade, had said to their respective States that both their safety 
and their honor demanded their withdrawal from the Union. 
The necessary limits of this volume do not, however, admit of 
more than brief notices of some of the more important events 
of that eventful period, with extracts from such of Mr. Mason's 
speeches and letters as will show whether he correctly inter- 
preted the signs of the times. It will be evident that while he 
claimed for the Southern States nothing more than had- been 
guaranteed to them by the Federal Constitution, he strove 
earnestly to point out to the people of the whole country the 
inevitable results of the policy which secured complete political 
ascendency to one section and placed the other in a helpless 
minority. 

In the fragmentary memoranda, before spoken of as found 
among Mr. Mason's papers, there is the following entry, which 
is dated, Selma, August 9th, 1851 : 

The Slave Question and the Disposition Made of it by 
THE 31ST Congress, 1850. 

" The pseudo compromise of the slave question, claimed 
to have been effected by the measures of this session, will, in 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



85 



its consequences, be found fatal, either to the Union of the 
States, or to the institution of slavery. The disposition of the 
subject made by the compromise laws has had the necessary 
effect of placing the Union of the States under a common gov- 
ernment, in direct hostility to the institution of slavery, and an 
antagonism, not before even known to exist, has thus been 
established and placed broadly before the eyes of the people. 
It leaves to the Southern States no escape from the decision. 
Which, on their part, shall be preferred? And all this has been 
done by defection in the Representatives of the South. Who 
these are, history and the records of the day will leave in no 
uncertainty when the day of trial comes. The issues made were, 
the right of the Federal Government to prohibit slavery in the 
territories, and the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia. 

" The Southern States had, with entire unanimity, pre- 
scribed these issues as the fighting line, and both were, by the 
compromise unconditionally surrendered. The former, directly 
and without equivocation, and the latter, substantially; because, 
on the question of right there can be no difference between the 
right to abolish an institution, and the right to destroy an in- 
cident material to its preservation. 

In looking to the part I bore in the deliberations and acts 
of that Congress, I have the satisfaction of knowing that my 
judgment never wavered, or recognized one doubt as to the line 
of duty, an opposition from the beginning to the close of the 
disgusting drama, with a protest when it ended. The rest is a 
question of time, and of time only. The safety and integrity of 
the Southern States (to say nothing of their dignity and honor) 
are indissolubly bound up with domestic slavery, and for the 
overthrow of the latter the Federal Government is now com- 
mitted, to the world, and to the majority which wields its power. 
Those who would have averted this fearful issue were the true 
friends to the perpetuity of the Union; and if it be found true 
that this issue is presented by the so-called Compromise 
Measures, it results that the responsibility rests with those who 
voted them into law." 

Another entry in the same memoranda, says : " The term 
for which I was elected to the Senate, expired on March 4th, 



g(^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

1851. The Legislature met at Richmond on Monday, Decem- 
ber 2d, 1850, and on Saturday following, December 7th, I was 
re-elected for six years to expire March 4th, 1857, by the 
triumphant majority of seventy, against all competitors, on the 
first ballot. The election was made thus immediately after the 
Legislature met (as shown by reasons assigned in the debate), 
to mark the more emphatically its decided approbation of my 
course in the Senate, on the slavery questions, arising out of the 
acquisition of California and New Mexico. Bis dat, qui cito dat." 

His re-election to the Senate was, of course, the subject of 
comment in many of the newspapers. The opinions then ex- 
pressed possess some interest now. 

The first extract is taken from one of the papers of Charles- 
town, Jefferson County, Virginia, which said : 

" On the arrival of the news from Richmond of the re- 
election of Colonel James M. Mason to the United States 
Senate by the Legislature of Virginia, the Court-House bell was 
rung, and a meeting of the people of the town and neighborhood 
held. On motion. Colonel Francis Yates was called to the chair, 
and Robert Baylor appointed secretary. On motion of iR. H. 
Butcher, Esq., the following resolutions were offered and 
adopted : 

" ' Resolved, That with unfeigned pleasure we have just 
heard of the re-election of the Honorable James M. Mason to 
the Senate of the United States by the Virginia Legislature. 

" ' Resolved, That this meeting hails with deHght this act of 
justice and right on their part towards a distinguished, faith- 
ful, public servant, who has obeyed his State, faithfully repre- 
sented his constituents, and reflected honor upon this noble 
Commonwealth. 

" ' Resolved, That our worthy Senator should see in this act 
of his constituents, not only his reward, but his duty to per- 
severe in that course which shall ensure to his own State and 
the whole South her constitutional rights under the Constitu- 
tion made by the Fathers of this Republic. 

" ' Resolved, That this meeting tender their thanks to the 
Senator from this district, H. L. Opie, and other Senators and 
members from the Valley, for vindicating the rights of this State 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. gy 

and the South, in their advocacy of the claims of the Honorable 
James M. Mason to the Senate of the United States. 

" ' Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed by the 
Chair to procure ammunition and fire a salute of thirteen guns 
in honor of the re-election of the Honorable James M. Mason 
to the Senate of the United States. 

" * Resolved, That the Secretary of this meeting forward a 
copy of the proceedings of this meeting to Honorable James M. 
Mason, Senator-elect; to the Honorable R. M. T. Hunter, to 
the State Senator from this district, and to his Excellency John 
B. Floyd, Governor of Virginia.' 

" A postscript by the editor said : ' In accordance with the 
above resolutions, our old cannon made vocal the hills and the 
valleys on last evening, in honor of the election of Mr. Mason. 
Bonfires also illumined our village, and with many of our citizens 
it was an occasion of no ordinary rejoicing.' " 

The Soutlvern Argus, of December nth, 1850, said: "The 
two Houses of the Virginia Legislature, by joint ballot, on 
Saturday re-elected the Honorable James M. Mason, Senator 
of the United States for six years from the 4th of March next, 
by the overwhelming vote of 112, scattering 42. The Richmond 
Enquirer says that Mr. Mason received the vote of every 
Democrat and of many Whigs who felt it their duty to sustain 
him. We feel gratified and proud at this result. Had the Legis- 
lature pursued a different course towards this pure patriot and 
statesman, it would have been an ineffaceable stain upon the 
character of the State." ' 

These extracts from contemporaneous newspapers afford 
evidence that his course was fully approved and endorsed by his 
constituents. The estimation in which he was held in the 
Senate may be inferred from the fact that, upon the opening of 
the next session of that body, in December, 185 1, he was elected 
Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, and was re- 
elected to this important position each session during the next 
ten years, or so long as Virginia retained her place among the 
States of the Union. 

An extract from the Congressional Globe indicates his jeal- 
ous care (as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations) 
for the rights of the people of the United States, irrespective of 



S8 I'IFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

sectional questions. It may be well to say, in explanation, that 
in the early summer of 1852, great excitement and indignation 
was aroused in the New England States by the appearance on 
the North American coast of British vessels of war sent out for 
the avowed purpose of seizing any American fishing vessels 
found within the limits defined by " The Crown Officers of 
England." The opinion delivered by these officers of the Crown 
was, " That by the terms of the Convention of 1818, American 
citizens were excluded from any right of fishing within three 
miles from the coast of British America, and that the prescribed 
distance of three miles is to be measured from the headland or 
extreme points of land next the sea, of the coast or of the 
entrance of bays or indents of the coast, and consequently that 
no right exists on the part of American citizens to enter the 
bays of Nova Scotia, there to take fish, although the fishing 
being within the bay may be a greater distance than three miles 
from the shore of the bay; as we are of opinion that the term 
* head land ' is used in the treaty to express the part of the land 
we have before mentioned; including the interior of the bays 
and the indents of the shore." 

In the newspapers of July 6th, 1852, had appeared a com- 
munication headed: 

American Fisheries — (Official) — Department of State. 

" Information of an official nature has been received to the 
effect that, with the recent change of . Ministry in England, has 
occurred an entire change of policy regarding the questions re- 
lating to protection for the fisheries on the coasts of British 
North America. That her Majesty's Ministers are desirous of 
removing all grounds of complaint on the part of the Colonies, 
in consequence of the encroachments of the fishing vessels of 
the United States upon those waters, from which they are ex- 
cluded by the terms of the Convention of 181 8; and they there- 
fore intend to dispatch, as soon as possible, a small naval force 
of steamers or other small vessels, to enforce the observance of 
that Convention." 

After a clear recital of the facts and circumstances relevant, 
the paper concludes : " It is this construction of the intent and 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



89 



meaning of the Convention of 1818, for which the Colonies have 
contended since 1841, and which they have desired should be 
enforced. This the English Government has now, it would 
appear, consented to do, and the immediate effect will be the 
loss of the valuable fall fishing to American fishermen, a com- 
plete interruption of the extensive fishing business of New Eng- 
land, attended by constant collisions of the most unpleasant and 
exciting character, which may end in the destruction of human 
life, in the involvement of the Government in questions of a very 
serious nature, threatening the peace of the two countries. Not 
agreeing that the construction thus put upon the treaty is con- 
formable to the intentions of the contracting parties, this in- 
formation is, however, made public to the end that those con- 
cerned in the American fisheries may perceive how the case at 
present stands, and may be upon their guard. The whole sub- 
ject will engage the immediate attention of the Government. 
"(Signed) DANIEL WEBSTER, 

" Secretary of State." 

On July 23d, 1852, Mr. Mason submitted the following 
resolution : 

" Resolved, That the President of the United States be re- 
quested to communicate to the Senate, if, in his opinion, not 
incompatible with the public interests, all correspondence on 
file in the Executive Departments with the Government of Eng- 
land, or its Diplomatic representatives, since the Convention 
between the United States and Great Britain, of October 20th, 
1818, touching the fisheries on the coasts of the British pos- 
sessions in North America, and the rights of American citizens 
of the United States engaged in such fisheries, as secured by 
such Convention. 

" And that the President be also requested, under like 
limitations, to inform the Senate whether any of the Naval 
forces of the United States have been ordered to the seas 
adjacent to the British possessions in North America, to protect 
the rights of American fishermen, under said Convention of 
1818, since the receipt of the intelHgence that a large and un- 
usual British naval force had been ordered there to enforce 
certain alleged rights of Great Britain, under said Convention." 



QQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

He then said : " Mr, President, I have thought it my duty, 
considering the present aspect of affairs, so far as they are com- 
municated to us by the public journals, to submit this resolu- 
tion, and ask that it be considered immediately. We are in- 
formed, unofficially, but in a manner clearly indicating that it is 
correct, that the British Government has recently asserted 
rights under the Convention of 1818, in relation to the fisheries 
of the North, which, whether they exist or not, they suffered 
from 1818 to 1841 to pass without a question, and after 1841, 
when the question was mooted as to the respective rights of 
British subjects and American citizens under the treaty of 1818, 
they still suffered to remain in statu quo. 

" Sir, the British Government know well that very large 
and important interests are embarked by citizens of the United 
States in these fisheries. They know that the harbors, and 
coasts, and seas off their possessions in North America swarm 
at stated seasons of the year — and this, as I am informed, is one 
of those seasons — with these fishing vessels ; yet, suddenly, with- 
out notice of any kind, we are informed from the public journals, 
and semi-oflficially by a sort of proclamation from the Secretary 
of State, that a very large British naval force has been ordered 
into those seas for the purpose of enforcing, at the mouth of 
the cannon, the construction which Great Britain has now 
recently determined to place on that Convention. Now, sir, I 
had supposed, in this civilized age, and between two such coun- 
tries as those of Great Britain and the United States, that were 
it the purpose of England to revise her construction of this 
Convention, and require that it should be enforced, comity, 
ordinary comity, national courtesy, would have required that 
notice should have given of that determination on the part of 
Great Britain. 

" But, sir, when no such notice is given ; when on the con- 
trary, the first information that reaches us is that Great Britain 
has ordered into those seas a large naval force for the purpose 
of enforcing this alleged right, I know not in what light it may 
strike other Senators, but it strikes me as a far higher offence 
than a breach of national courtesy — as one of insult and in- 
dignity to the American people. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. gj 

" This morning, in the first paper I took up from the 
North, I see extracted from one of the British colonial news- 
papers, printed at St. Johns, in New Brunswick, a formal state- 
ment of the actual naval force ordered by Great Britain im- 
mediately to rendezvous in those seas. It consists of the 
Cumberland, a seventy-gun ship, commanded by Sir G. F. Sey- 
mour, who, I believe, is a British Admiral commanding on the 
West India Station ; and then follows an enumeration of steam 
vessels, sloops of war, and schooners, to the number of nineteen, 
ordered to rendezvous there immediately, and with the utmost 
dispatch. For what purpose? To enforce at once, and without 
notice to this Government, so far as I am informed — and yet 
we have some information, through the quasi-proclamation of 
the Secretary of State — at the mouth of the cannon, the con- 
struction which the British Government places upon that Con- 
vention. I do not know what view has been taken by the Presi- 
dent of this extraordinary movement on the part of the British 
Government; but I think I do know what the American people 
would demand of the Executive under such circumstances. If 
there be official information or information satisfactory to the 
Executive, that this extraordinary naval armament has been 
ordered by Great Britain into the North American seas, for the 
purpose of executing, instanfer, the construction which Great 
Britain places upon the Convention, I say the American people 
will demand of their Executive that all the naval force on the 
home station should be ordered there instantly, to protect the 
American fishermen. 

" Sir, we have been told by the poet who most deeply read 
the human heart, that ' out of this nettle, danger, we pluck the 
flower, safety ' ; and if I may be told there is danger of collision, 
I would answer at once, there is no danger. But if there were, 
it becomes the Executive immediately to resent that which can 
be looked upon only as an indignity and insult to the nation. 
I have no fear, Mr. President, that war is to follow the apparent 
collision which has taken place between the two governments; 
but I confess that I feel deeply the indignity that has been put 
upon the American people, in ordering this British squadron 
into those seas without notice ; and if I read the feelings of our 
people aright, they will demand that a like force shall be in- 



g2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

stantly sent there, in order that the rights of our people may be 
protected. 

" Sir, I do not profess the power to construe the purpose of 
this movement on the part of the British Government ; but I 
was very much impressed by a dispatch which I saw in one of 
the late papers, but which, unfortunately, I have not at hand, 
within the last few days, a dispatch from the Foreign Office of 
Great Britain to the Colonial Office advising the Colonial Office 
of this movement, advising it that it was one requiring celerity 
and dispatch, and requiring that measures should be taken by 
the Colonial Office to procure concert between the British naval 
force and the Colonial authorities. The reason assigned was 
that this measure was taken on the part of Great Britain as 
preliminary to certain negotiations. Now, what does this mean? 
I know not what these negotiations are, but if it means any- 
thing, it means that we are to negotiate under duress. Ay, sir ; 
at this day, that this great people covering a continent, and 
numbering five and twenty millions, are to negotiate with a 
foreign fleet on our coast. I know not what the President has 
done; I claim to know what the American people expect of 
him. I know, that if he has done his duty, the reply to the 
resolution of inquiry will be, ' I have ordered the whole naval 
force of the country into those seas to protect the rights of 
American fishermen against the British cannon.' 

" I hope it will be the pleasure of the Senate to consider the 
resolution immediately." 

The resolution was commended, in short speeches, by 
Messrs. Hamlin (Maine), Cass (Michigan), and Seward (New 
York), and was adopted. It does not pertain to the present 
purpose to go into the negotiations that followed between the 
British and the United States Governments on the subject. A 
letter from Mr. Woodbury is appended as one among many 
received from New England in acknowledgment of Mr. Mason's 
vigilance in protecting the rights and the interests of that sec- 
tion of the country. 

" Boston, February 25th, 1852. 
" To the Hon. James M. Mason, 

" U. S. Senate, Washington, D. C. 
"Dear Sir : A great excitement prevails here on the fishery 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. gj 

question, and your conduct in the Senate excites the warmest 
approbation along the coast. In the present peculiar position 
of the question we hardly know whom to petition, or exactly 
what to ask; a great many petitions are circulating in all our 
coast towns. Every Yankee feels his honor and his interest 
alike involved in this matter, and if the Government will only 
permit the fishermen to arm themselves, they may not be able 
to catch steamers, but you may rely upon it there will be no 
British left on land or water within a marine league of the coasts 
of the provinces. 

" The accompanying memorials are sent through you, as 
Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations, with the 
desire that you may refer them to the President or the depart- 
ment most proper to entertain them, or if the preliminary move- 
ment is from Congress, to use yourself. This step is not in- 
tended in any doubt or disrespect of the members from this 
State, but for the purpose of informing your committee in 
transitu, and expressing our gratification that you should so 
promptly tread in the steps of the illustrious Jefferson (your 
countryman) in vindicating that child of his policy, the nursery 
of American seamen. 

" I am, etc., yours respectfully, 

"CHAS. LEVI WOODBURY." 



94 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CHAPTER V. 

Kossuth — Speech on Intervention and Monroe Doctrine — Know-Nothing 
Party — President Pierce and His Cabinet — Kansas-Nebraska Act — Kansas 
Aid Society — Senator Sumner's Speech and Mr. Mason's Reply — Mr. 
Sumner Punished by Mr. Brooks. 

Another extract from the fragmentary memoranda found 
among Mr. Mason's private papers will supply an appropriate 
introduction to his speech on the " Intervention Policy," made 
in the Senate on April 6, 1852. It is the last of these mem- 
oranda, and it is dated 

" Selma, September i8th, 1852. 

" I found it impossible at the late session, which terminated 
August 31st, to continue the foregoing as a contemporaneous 
diary; and thus record now such of the events of that session 
as memory retains, or I may think worth transmission. 

" The first was the visit of Kossuth, the soi-disant Governor 
of Hungary, to Washington. Either instinct or some knowl- 
edge of humanity led me to consider this man an impostor, and 
his subsequent career in the country fully confirmed the first 
impression. I did not call on him in Washington, being one of 
the very few who did not. I voted against his reception by the 
Senate, and took occasion in debate on the intervention policy to 
give my opinion of him. 

" He is certainly a man of genius, but it is the genius of a 
poet and a visionary. 

" The occasion of his visit, and his avowed policy to induce 
this, Government to depart from its hitherto neutral position in 
all questions aiTecting foreign interests, was taken hold of by all 
the aspirants for the Presidency, to conciliate the immense 
foreign vote of the country, at the expense of its peace and 
safety. 

" At a dinner given to him in Washington by members of 
Congress, to which I refused to subscribe. Captain Douglas, and 
even Webster, though Secretary of State, vied in the effort to 
exceed each other in such oblations. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. gc 

" Kossuth, in his progress through the country, collected 
and took with him to Europe some $100,000 as a sacred fund 
for aid to Hungary in future revolution. It remains to be seen 
how it will be accounted for by the trustee." 

The following extract can be found on Page 401 of the 
Appendix to the Congressional Globe of the session 1850-1852: 

The Senate having under consideration the resolutions 
offered by Mr. Clark, with amendments offered by Mr. Seward 
and Mr. Cass, reaffirming the doctrines of non-intervention, 
Mr. Mason said : 

" Mr. President : The resolutions which have been offered 
by the Honorable Senator from Michigan (Mr. Cass), and also 
by the Honorable Senator from New York (Mr. Seward), are 
directed to an occasion that has passed by. They are intended 
to express the sense of the Congress of the United States on the 
armed intervention of the Emperor of Russia between Austria 
and Hungary, one of its dependencies. But, though the occa- 
sion is passed, these honorable Senators regarding, I doubt not, 
the strong feeling which was manifested in some parts of the 
country on the occasion of that intervention have deemed it 
proper to bring the subject before Congress, in order, first, that 
the Congress of the United States may express, so far as lies 
with them, the sentiments of the country on the subject of that 
intervention; and, secondly, with a view to foreshadow what 
those Senators, and others who think with them, take to be the 
true position of this Government, and of this country, in refer- 
ence to all similar occasions when they may arise. 

" Now, sir, we can not shut our eyes to the fact, that 
among some of the people of this country, confined, I believe, 
pretty much to the West and North, a strong sentiment has 
been excited by the presence of one of the refugees from this 
re-subjugated country of Hungary, who came among us, brought 
out under the safe conduct of our flag, as was supposed, with a 
view to find a Republican home ; or if not, then simply to make 
his acknowledgments for that safe conduct ; but as it has turned 
out, he came with a view to establish himself as a propagandist 
in this country; to invite the councils of the nation to what he 
apprehended to be the duty that this country owed to others, 
and more especially to his own. The feeling natural to the 



96 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



occasion was very much inflamed by the peculiar talents of the 
man as a popular orator. And so it has been that your table, 
Mr. President, now has on it memorials and petitions from 
various parts of the country asking the Government to review, 
in order to remodel, the policy that has been the guide of this 
country for the last half century in its intercourse with and in its 
relations to foreign countries. 

" Sir, the resolution which has been offered by the Senator 
from Michigan, adverting to this armed interference of Russia 
between Austria and Hungary, expresses, on the part of the 
United States, the declaration ' that they have not seen, nor 
could they again see, without deep concern, the violation of this 
principle of national independence ' ; the principle being as 
recited in the resolution, that which is an undoubted law of 
nations, that one nation has not the right to interfere with the 
domestic concerns of another. 

" The resolution of the Senator from New York goes a 
little further. In that resolution it is declared that, ' The United 
States, in defence of their own interests, and of the common 
interests of mankind, do solemnly protest against the conduct 
of Russia on that occasion, as a wanton and tyrannical infrac- 
tion of the laws of nations; and the United States do further 
declare that they will not hereafter be indifferent to similar acts 
of national injustice, oppression, and usurpation, whenever or 
wherever they may occur.' 

" The sanctions under which these resolutions were offered 
to the world are pretty much the same in both instances. The 
Senator from Michigan says, that ' the United States can not 
see without deep concern any further violation,' etc., and the 
Senator from New York says that we ' can not see it with 
indifference.' The import of the two expressions, I apprehend, 
being pretty much the same; but they both go to this extent, 
that it is the duty of the United States to express a purpose on 
their part, should there be any future intervention by one 
foreign nation in the domestic concerns of another. 

" Mr. President, the reasons which Senators have assigned 
in sustaining these resolutions have gone further than the resolu- 
tions themselves. They have shadowed forth — some more dis- 
tinctly, some less so, and I refer especially to the remarks of the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. gy 

Senator from New York (Mr. Seward), and those of the Senator 
from Louisiana (Mr. Soule), — they have shadowed forth on the 
part of these honorable Senators this idea, that the time was at 
hand when it became this country to review its.poHcy in this 
respect, although not expressed in language sufficiently pointed 
to enable us to understand to what extent that review should be 
carried. 

" But the honorable Senator from Louisiana went some- 
what further. He undertook to show that that which had been 
assumed as being the policy of Washington — a subject of late 
much discussed at public meetings in the country, as well as in 
the newspapers — was a sort of historical misconception, that 
there had been no such policy at all, or if there had been, that 
it was a policy adopted only for an occasion, and which ended 
with the occasion which gave it birth. This suggestion would 
seem to render it proper that we should go back to the early 
history of the country, and trace from their first beginning the 
rules and maxims, which, it is alleged, on our part, were in- 
stituted by the fathers of the Republic, to guide us in our inter- 
course with foreign nations. 

" Thus looking back, we shall find three great occasions on 
which the policy of this Government, in its relation to foreign 
powers, was brought prominently before the country : 

" First, in the wars following the French Revolution, 
towards the close of the last century. 

" Second, on the threatened intervention of the * Holy 
Alliance ' between Spain and her American Colonies. 

" Third, on the invitation to this Government by the South 
American Republics, to meet them in a Congress at Panama. 

" The first arose immediately after the organization of the 
Government. Washington was inaugurated President in 1789, 
and his celebrated proclamation of neutrality issued in 1793. To 
this proclamation history goes back as the great landmark in 
every review of our foreign policy. It will be useful therefore, 
briefly to recall the position of the country at that time, and the 
occasion that brought it forth. 

" From the commencement of the American Revolution, 
France had looked to the ultimate separation of England and her 
American Colonies with an eye of favor, and, as a consequence, 



98 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



nothing was left undone on their part to engage France in the 
contest. 

" Dr. Franklin had been sent to Paris to conciliate the good- 
will of that country, and to procure aid. He was kindly and 
graciously received, though not formally acknowledged as the 
representative of his country. But soon the favor of the French 
Court was strongly evinced by permitting military stores and 
other supplies to be shipped to America, and even vessels of 
war to be armed and equipped in her ports against England. 
The gratitude of our country thus strongly awakened — for even 
by such connivance France incurred the hazards of a war — was 
soon more keenly excited by the treaty of 1778, by which she 
made herself a party belligerent, and guaranteed our independ- 
ence. It was to be expected, therefore, that the American people 
would strongly sympathize with those of France, when they 
were soon after found in a like struggle for freedom, as was 
fondly believed, against a league of foreign despots. 

" The year 1793, just ten years after the independence of the 
United States had been finally established by the treaty of peace, 
found our old enemy, England, confederated in arms with 
Austria, Prussia, Sardinia, and the United Netherlands, against 
Republican France. The occasion was eminently calculated to 
unsettle the judgment of the country. The despots of Europe in 
league to subjugate Republican France, that France, who, but 
ten years, short years, before, had been our ally in a like contest 
with one of those very powers then armed against her. 

" Fortunately for the event, the destinies of the country were 
then under the guidance of men who were statesmen, as well as 
patriots. They were (to borrow the appropriate word of the 
Senator from Louisiana, Mr. Soule) 'impassive/ unmoved by 
the stirring excitement of the occasion ; they took counsel only 
of the duties they owed to their own country. They well knew 
that, however equally our country had reaped the benefits, 
France, in becoming our ally, was actuated, as nations always 
are actuated, by considerations, first, of her own interest. 

" France and England were then the great rival powers of 
the world and at that very juncture, the former was yet smarting 
under the humiliations of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, by which 
she lost her possessions in North America, and England had 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. gg 



acquired them ; and without disparaging the important aid which 
we had derived from France, they knew, also, that she had not 
committed herself to a breach with England, until the success of 
our arms in the campaign of 1777, in the plains of New Jersey, 
followed by the surrender of Burgoyne at Saratoga, showed our 
country capable of maintaining the independence it had declared. 
In fine, they knew that the first, if not the single object of France, 
was to weaken her rival, by dismembering her colonies. 

" Mr. Gerraud, one of the commissioners on the part of 
France, who signed the treaty of 1778, stated to the American 
Commissioners : ' That his most Christian Majesty was fixed in 
his determination, not only to acknowledge, but to support their 
independence ; that in doing this he might probably be soon 
engaged in a war, yet he should not expect any compensation 
from the United States on that account, nor was it pretended that 
he acted wholly for their sokes, since, besides his good will to them, 
it was manifestly the interest of France that the power of Eng- 
land should be diminished by the separation of the Colonies 
from its Government. The only condition he should require, and 
rely on, would be, that the United States, in no peace to be 
made, should give up their independence and return to obedi- 
ence to the British Government.'* 

" Reasoning as a statesman should, Washington and his 
Cabinet acknowledged only the responsibility of the nation to 
itself. Although under many stipulations to guaranty to France 
her West Indian possessions, there was none that America 
should make herself a party to the war ; and by direction of 
President Washington, the proclamation of neutrality was 
issued. Its character simply was, to define the relations of the 
country, as existing with all foreign powers, under the laws of 
the country, nothing more. It laid for the time, but it laid broad 
and deep, the foundations of our foreign policy. In communicat- 
ing it to Congress, at the first session thereafter, by his message 
of December, 1793, the President said: 

" ' As soon as the war in Europe had embraced those 

powers with whom the United States have the most extensive 

relations, there was reason to apprehend that our intercourse 

with them might be interrupted, and our disposition for peace 

*See Ramsey's "History of the United States." 



jQQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

drawn into question by the suspicions too often entertained by 
belligerent nations. It seemed, therefore, to be my duty to 
admonish our citizens of the consequence of a contraband trade, 
and of hostile acts to any of the parties, and to obtain, by a 
declaration of the existing legal state of things, an easier admis- 
sion of our right to the immunities belonging to our situation. 
Under those impressions the proclamation which will be laid 
before you was issued.' 

" Of this proclamation the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. 
Soule) says, it was only a ' transient measure, looking wholly to 
the then situation of the country, and to the demands which 
that situation, with its surrounding perils, made upon it.' And 
again : * It seemed to be debated in Cabinet Council how far, in 
issuing that proclamation, General Washington had not tran- 
scended the powers vested in the President by the Constitution; 
and we have the authority of Mr. Jefiferson to the eflfect that ' he 
apologised for the use of the term neutrality.' ' The President/ 
remarked Mr. Jefferson, ' declared he never had an idea that he 
would bind Congress against declaring war, or that anything 
contained in his proclamation could look beyond the day of their 
meeting. The President said he had but one object, the keeping 
our people quiet till Congress should meet.' 

" The impression that would seem to be conveyed by the 
honorable Senator in the expression thus used, is, that this proc- 
lamation was one intended only to indicate a policy altogether 
transient ; a policy that should die with the exigency that had 
given rise to it ; and he cites from the ' Ana ' of Mr. Jefferson, 
published with his correspondence, to show what General Wash- 
ington himself thought of the proclamation. He says that Gen- 
eral Washington declared that he had no idea of committing 
Congress by that proclamation ; but that his only object was to 
' keep the nation quiet until Congress should meet' Now, sir, 
it did not require any declaration on the part of General Wash- 
ington, as to what the character of that proclamation was, for the 
proclamation speaks for itself. It did not require anything from 
General Washington to inform the American people of that day, 
of the extent of his powers ; for the extent of his powers, as Presi- 
dent, were defined in the Constitution. Washington declared, and 
declared correctly, that the proclamation originated nothing. It 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jqj 

was no enactment of a law. It was a sinjg^le declaration of the 
existing relations between this country and all foreign powers, 
relations not arising from his will, nor created by the proclama- 
tion, but existing under the laws. His purpose and sole object 
was, to declare to the American people, the obHgations which 
existing laws imposed upon them. What were those laws? 
Laws recognizing that this country was at peace with all the 
world. And the proclamation was nothing more than that being 
at peace, it was his duty, as the conservator of the laws, to see 
that that peace was not broken. 

" Sir, parties were somewhat divided at that day upon the 
policy which it became this country to pursue towards France; 
one party asserting that our proper position was neutrality, 
another party asserting that we ought to embark in the war, that 
it was a duty which we owed to our ancient ally, to sustain her 
in her war for independence, as she had recently sustained us. 
But, until war was declared by the Congress of the United States, 
who alone were competent to declare it, there could be no dif- 
ference of opinion as to the duty of the Executive, to take care 
that the peace of the country was preserved. The country was 
then new. The Constitution was new. It was comparatively 
untried. The extent of power confided under it to the Ex- 
ecutive, and to the Congress of the United States, although to 
be gathered from the instrument, was a matter that very much 
occupied the minds of statesmen of that day. It does appear, 
on the relation of Mr. Jefferson, that in the Cabinet, occasionally, 
Alexander Hamilton, whose latitudinarian opinions upon the 
subject of power we all know, advanced the opinion, that there 
was something more potent in this proclamation of neutrality, 
than a mere declaration of the existing state of things. Hamil- 
ton seemed to have entertained the opinion, that it was com- 
petent for the President of the United States, by a proclamation 
of neutrality, to create a neutrality; and he went so far in main- 
taining his position, as to declare his belief that, under the treaty- 
making power, it was competent for the President and the 
Senate to stipulate a neutrality with a foreign nation, and thereby 
take away from the Congress of the United States the right , 
to declare war in that particular case. In this broad opinion Mr. 
Hamilton seems to have been sustained by General Knox. Mr. 



JQ2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Jefferson and Edmund Randolph combated it; and General 
Washington, it would seem, agreed with them, declaring, as 
reported by Mr. Jefferson, ' that he had but one object, that of 
keeping the people quiet until Congress met.' The proclama- 
tion, in truth, originated nothing; it created nothing. It estab- 
lished the status of the country only until Congress should meet. 
But it declared the opinion of General Washington as to the 
duty of his country, and that that duty was neutrality. 

" The Senator from Louisiana, whose absence I very much 
regret, because I am commenting on the very able speech which 
he delivered here a few days ago, and which, I doubt not, will 
have its effect upon the country in the decision to which they 
will come on this question, in speaking of this proclamation,, 
says further : 

" ' A war had just broken out between France and England 
— I should say between France and coalesced Europe, France 
alone struggling for her liberties and the liberties of mankind 
against the world in arms. The question arose what part 
America should act in that awful conflict. Would she redeem 
those pledges which ardent and enthusiastic minds had per- 
suaded themselves she was under, and taking the part of France, 
strike by her side for the liberties of the world? She could not 
join England in a crusade against those liberties. Would she 
then participate in the struggle, or would she rather remain a 
quiet spectator of the gigantic scene, and trust to God the des- 
tinies of her ally? Necessity — stern necessity — could alone 
impel her to choose the last alternative.' 

" He here conveys the idea that the American people were 
deterred from embarking in that war with France, only because 
of their debilitated condition. That, he holds, was their ' neces- 
sity.' Now, I apprehend, the history of that period shows very 
differently. Washington issued the proclamation of neutrality 
in April. Congress met in the ensuing December ; and so far 
from declaring any war, with a view to aid our former ally, 
France, Congress passed, from time to time, a series of laws to 
protect this country in the neutrality thus established. Things 
went so far, as we know from the history of the times, that Con- 
gress at last authorized reprisals to be made against France, on 
account of the spoliation on American commerce; and the scene 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jqj 

closed by a formal act of the Congress of the United States, 
repealing the Treaty of 1778, and with it all the guarantees which 
it had made to France. I adduce this for the purpose of show- 
ing, that, so far as the spirit of the American people is to be 
ascertained from the legislation of the country, during the whole 
of that trying period, Congress sustained the President of the 
United States in his neutral policy, and passed every law which 
they considered would conduce to the preservation of neutrality, 
and keep the country free from all foreign obligations.* 

" Mr. President, I will weary the Senate no longer than 
briefly to sum up the points I have thus endeavored to establish, 
by reference to the appropriate history of our country. The 
policy of the United States in her intercourse with foreign 
nations, as established by Washington, and followed by his suc- 
cessors, I take to be this : 

" That the Government shall keep itself free of all political 
connection with any foreign power. 

" That the first and great object in view is to preserve rela- 
tions of peace and amity with all ; and this is best subserved by 
avoiding all alliances, whether transient or permanent." 

After reviewing the circumstances attending the other two 
occasions to which he had referred, Mr. Mason quoted the cele- 
brated message of President Monroe, and said of it. " The 
ground upon which President Monroe based this deliberate 
declaration was, as will be seen, that the allied powers could not 
extend their political system to any portion of the continent 
of America without endangering our peace and happiness. That 
was the distinct, independent, and sole ground on which he 
justified this ostensible departure from the established policy of 
the country. It was boldly and wisely done, and was sustained 
by the American people. This declaration went upon the prin- 
ciple, that whilst this Government disclaimed all right to inter- 
fere in controversies between foreign powers, yet such disclaimer 
was obviously Hmited to controversies which could not affect 
our own people ; when by any such controversy a different aspect 
was presented, the safety and interest of our own country be- 
came our sole guide," 

*Want of space makes it necessary to omit much of this speech. It 
can be found in the Congressional Globe. 



jQ^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

"That the cardinal maxim of the Government, when any 
measure affecting its policy is proposed, is to consider first, and 
to consider last, how it will affect the safety and welfare of our 
own people, and to do nothing (consistent with the honor of the 
country) which will endanger either. 

" That in case of war between two or more powers with 
whom we are at peace, both duty and interest require of us strict 
neutrality. 

" That should such war, or other form of hostility, exist 
between a Government and its own people, or its dependencies, 
however we may sympathize with the one party or the other, 
accordingly as we may consider on which side is the right, our 
duty of neutrality is not the less incumbent, than in case of such 
war between independent powers. 

" That the laws of nations have their sanction only in the 
faith and in the honor of nations; whence it results that, what- 
ever opinions may justly be entertained of the offender, when 
they are violated or disregarded, no nation is called upon to 
enforce such law, or to redress the wrong, unless thereby injury 
be committed against herself. 

" That in any case where one nation interferes by force or 
otherwise, with the internal or domestic affairs of another, how- 
ever it be in violation of the law of nations, our American policy 
prescribes, that it is no affair of ours, unless such interference 
shall, either directly or ultimately, affect the safety or interest 
of our own people ; in which case, such affair becomes ours, 
and our Government is bound to act accordingly. 

" That in regard to any such foreign interference, our duty 
is measured only by our interests; we may be called to intervene 
when its consequences are, or may become, injurious to our 
own people, but not because of its injury to another people. 

" These maxims of policy have guided us thus far to honor, 
dignity, and strength. Under them the country is prosperous at 
home and respected abroad. To abandon them now would be in 
the very wantonness of power, to hazard in speculative philan- 
thropy the peace and welfare of a whole people." 

During the summer of 1852 public attention was much 
engrossed with the pending Presidential campaign. The old 
party lines were almost disappearing before a new issue that had 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



105 



been brought into prominence, or it would, perhaps, be more 
accurate to say an old issue had been revived and presented in 
a rather different form. The American Party, formed in New 
York in 1842, had demanded that public offices should be held 
only by native Americans, and that naturalization should be 
allowed only after twenty years' sojourn in the country. Now, 
in 1852, when immigration had greatly increased, a secret, oath- 
bound fraternity, with numerous lodges, and with conventions 
which made nominations secretly, attained sudden importance 
because of the inroads made by it upon the Democratic and 
Whig parties, particularly upon the latter, as it drew much more 
largely upon that party than upon the Democratic. It was the 
outgrowth from the American Republican Party, and it revived 
the old claim that all public offices should be reserved for native- 
born Americans. From the professions of ignorance with which 
its members met all questioning, they derived the name " Know- 
nothings." Possibly the secrecy and mystery of the organization 
increased its popularity with certain classes, but to Mr. Mason 
and others of the same mould this feature alone would have 
made it odious, even though there had not been important issues 
at stake upon which this new party advocated measures at vari- 
ance with those supported by the Democrats. Mr. Mason, there- 
fore, took an active part in canvassing his State, and earnestly 
endeavored to point out the evils he apprehended from the 
Know-nothing party. 

Congress continued in session that year until August 31st; 
consequently it proved a laborious season for him; but the 
results of the elections in the fall were more than compensation 
for the efforts he had made. In March of the next year, 1853, 
Mr. Pierce was inaugurated President, with Honorable W. R. 
King, Vice-President ; Governor W. L. Marcy, of New York, 
Secretary of State ; and Honorable Jefferson Davis, Secretary of 
War. Very kind, personal relations had long existed with all 
these gentlemen, and Mr. Mason's intercourse with this admin- 
istration was most cordial and agreeable. It should also be 
noted in this connection that General Samuel Cooper, of New 
York, Mr. Mason's brother-in-law, was at this time Adjutant- 
General of the Army of the United States. 

Mr. Davis says, in his " Rise and Fall of the Confederate 



IQ(^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Government," when speaking of his own experience as Secretary 
of War, " *iie administration of Franklin Pierce presents the 
only instance in our history of the continuance of a Cabinet for 
four years without a single change in its personnel. When it is 
remembered that there was much dissimilarity, if not incon- 
gruity, of cnaracter among the members of that Cabinet, some 
idea may be formed of the power over men possessed and ex- 
ercised by Mr. Pierce. Chivalrous, generous, amiable, true to 
his friends and to his faith, frank and bold in the declaration of 
his opinions, he never deceived any one. And, if treachery had 
ever come near him, it would have stood abashed in the presence 
of his truth, his manliness, and his confiding simplicity." 

The " Kansas-Nebraska Act " was, perhaps, the most im- 
portant measure adopted during the administration of Mr. 
Pierce ; and as it has been considered one of the most potent 
factors in determining the course of future events, it may be well 
to say here that it provided separate governments for the two 
territories and left the question of slavery to be decided by the 
people of the future States, when admitted. Mr. Davis says of it, 
in his book before quoted : " This bill was not, as has been im- 
properly asserted, a measure inspired by Mr. Pierce or any of 
his Cabinet. Nor was it the first step taken toward the repeal of 
the conditions or obligations expressed or implied by the estab- 
lishment, in 1820, of the politico-sectional line of thirty-six 
degrees and thirty minutes. That compact had been virtually 
abrogated, in 1850, by the refusal of the representatives of the 
North to apply it to the territory then recently acquired from 
Mexico. In May, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed; 
its purpose was declared to be to carry into practical operation 
the ' propositions and principles established by the compromise 
measures of 1850.' The ' Missouri Compromise,' therefore, was 
not repealed by that bill — its virtual repeal by the legislation 
of 1850 was recognised as an existing fact, and it was declared to 
be inoperative and void. 

" It was added that the ' true intent and meaning ' of the act 
was ' not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to 
exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly 
free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their 
own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States,' 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jQy 



The claim afterwards advanced by Mr. Douglass and others, 
that this declaration was intended to assert the right of the first 
settlers of a territory, in its inchoate, rudimental, dependent, and 
transitional condition, to determine the character of its institu- 
tions, constituted the doctrine popularly known as ' squatter 
sovereignty.' Its assertions led to the dissensions which ulti- 
mately resulted in a rupture of the Democratic Party." 

No trouble arose regarding Nebraska, because, owing to the 
climate, there was little probability that slave labor could ever 
be profitably employed there. In Kansas the case was different. 
Great excitement prevailed throughout the Union ; the Massa- 
chusetts Emigrant Aid Society sent colonies to keep slavery 
out of the State. A Congressional Association, known as the 
Kansas Aid Society, was formed for the purpose of aiding free 
emigration into Kansas ; arms, ammunition, and money, as well 
as men, were thus sent into the new Territory. John Brown 
(of Harper's Ferry fame) was one of these employes of the 
Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Society who proved himself 
specially energetic and skilful in executing his mission of 
murder. 

Emigrants from Arkansas and Missouri moved, with their 
slaves, into Kansas for the purpose of counteracting these 
designs and of keeping the Territory open to the Southern 
people. Scenes of violence and bloodshed were the inevitable 
results of such conditions, and they were of such frequent occur- 
rence as finally to call out the Federal troops to suppress the 
disorders. 

The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, had been violently 
denounced by the Abolitionists of the North. Fourteen of the 
States had passed " Personal Liberty Bills " for the protection 
of fugitive slaves found within their borders, had prohibited the 
use of State jails, had forbidden State officers and judges to 
assist claimants or to issue writs in such cases, and had provided 
heavy penalties for the violation of these laws. Sectional feeUng 
steadily increased in strength and bitterness. 

An extract from the Congressional Globe illustrates the 
strained relations that existed between the men brought together 
in Congress as representatives of their respective sections. It 
claims a place here because of its reference to Mr. Mason, and 



jo8 i^IFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



also because the incident to which it relates has been recorded 
by more than one of the historians of the day who have con- 
demned in unmeasured terms the conduct of Mr. Brooks, and 
have not shown the provocation to which he was subjected : 

" On May 12th, 1856, the Senate, as in Committee of the 
Whole, having under consideration the Bill ' to Authorize the 
People of the Territory of Kansas to form a Constitution and 
State Government, preparatory to their admission into the 
Union, when they have the Requisite Population,' Mr. Sumner 
spoke at length, and in the course of his speech he said : ' But 
before entering upon the argument, I must say something of a 
general character, particularly in response to what has fallen 
from Senators who have raised themselves to eminence on this 
floor in championship of human wrongs ; I mean the Senator 
from South Carolina (Mr. Butler), and the Senator from Illinois 
(Mr. Douglas), who, though unlike as Don Quixote and 
Sancho Panza, yet, like this couple, sally forth together in the 
same adventure. I regret much to miss the elder Senator from 
his seat ; but the cause, against which he has run a tilt, with such 
activity of animosity, demands that the opportunity of exposing 
him should not be lost ; and it is for this cause that I speak. 

" The Senator from South Carolina has read many books of 
chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight, with senti- 
ments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress 
to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, 
is always lovely to him ; though polluted in the sight of the 
world, is chaste in his sight — I mean the harlot, slavery. For 
her, his tongue is always profuse in words. Let her be im- 
peached in character or any proposition made to shut her out 
from the extension of her wantonness, and no extravagance of 
manner or hardihood of assertion is then too great for this 
Senator. The frenzy of Don Quixote, in behalf of his wench, 
Dulcinea del Toboso, is all surpassed. The asserted rights of 
slavery, which shock equality of all kinds, are cloaked by a fan- 
tastic claim of equality. If the slave States can not enjoy what, 
in mockery of the great fathers of the Republic, he misnames 
equality under the Constitution, in other words, the full power 
in the National Territories to compel fellowmen to unpaid toil, 
to separate husband and wife, and to sell little children at the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jop 



auction-block, then, sir, the chivalric Senator will conduct the 
State of South Carolina out of the Union. Heroic knight ! Ex- 
alted Senator ! A second Moses come for a second Exodus ! 

" ' But I have not done with the Senator. There is another 
matter regarded by him of such consequence, that he inter- 
polated it into the speech of the Senator from New Hampshire 
(Mr. Hale), and also announced that he had prepared himself 
with it, to take in his pocket all the way to Boston, when he 
expected to address the people of that community. On this 
account, and for the sake of truth, I stop for one moment and 
tread it to the earth. The North, according to the Senator, was 
engaged in the slave trade, and helped to introduce slaves into 
the Southern States ; and this undeniable fact he proposed to 
establish by statistics, in stating which his errors surpassed his 
sentences in number. But I let these pass for the present, that 
I may deal with his argument. Pray, sir, is the acknowledged 
turpitude of a departed generation to become an example for 
us? And yet the suggestion of the Senator, if entitled to any 
consideration in this discussion, must have this extent. I join 
my friend from New Hampshire in thanking the Senator from 
South Carolina for adducing this instance; for it gives me an 
opportunity to say, that the Northern merchants, with homes in 
Boston, Bristol, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia, who 
catered for slavery during the years of the slave-trade, are 
lineal progenitors of the Northern men with homes in these 
places, who lend themselves to slavery in our day ; and especially 
that all, whether North or South, who take part, directly or indi- 
rectly, in the conspiracy against Kansas, do but continue the work 
of the slave-traders, which you condemn. It is true, too true, 
alas, that our fathers were engaged in this traffic ; but that is no 
apology for it. And in repelling the authority of this example, 
I repel also the trite argument founded on the earlier example 
of England. It is true that our mother country, at the peace of 
Utrecht, extorted from Spain the Assiento Contract, securing the 
monopoly of the slave-trade with the Spanish Colonies, as the 
whole price of all the blood of great victories ; that she higgled 
at Aix-la-Chapelle for another lease of this exclusive traffic ; and 
again, at Madrid, clung to the wretched piracy, It is true, that 
in this spirit the power of the mother-country was prostituted 



j^jQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



to the same base ends in her American Colonies against in- 
dignant protests from our fathers. All these things now rise up 
in judgment against her. Let us not follow the Senator from 
South Carolina to do the very evil to-day, which in another 
generation we condemn. 

" ' Among these hostile Senators, there is yet another, with 
all the prejudices of the Senator from South Carolina, but with- 
out his generous impulses, who, on account of his character 
before the country, and the rancor of his opposition, deserves to 
be named. I mean the Senator from Virginia (Mr. Mason), who, 
as author of the Fugitive Slave Bill, has associated himself with 
a special act of inhumanity and tyranny. Of him I shall say little, 
for he has said little in this debate, though within that little was 
compressed the bitterness of a life absorbed in the support of 
slavery. He holds the commission of Virginia ; but he does not 
represent that early Virginia, so dear to our hearts, which gave 
to us the pen of Jefiferson, by which the equality of men was 
declared, and the sword of Washington, by which independence 
was secured ; but he represents that other Virginia, from which 
Washington and Jefferson now avert their faces, where human 
beings are bred as cattle for the shambles, and where a dungeon 
rewards the pious matron who teaches little children to relieve 
their bondage by reading the word of life. It is proper that such 
a Senator, representing such a State, should rail against Free 
Kansas. 

" ' Senators such as these are the natural enemies of Kansas, 
and I introduce them with reluctance that the country may 
understand the character of the hostility to be overcome. 
Arrayed with them, of course, are all those who unite under any 
pretext or apology, in the propagandism of human slavery. To 
such, indeed, the time-honored safeguards of popular rights can 
be a name only, and nothing more. What are trial by jury, 
habeas corpus, the ballot-box, the right of petition, the liberty 
of Kansas, your liberty, sir, or mine, to one who lends himself, 
not merely to the support at home, but to the propagandism 
abroad, of that preposterous wrong, that denies even the right 
of a man to himself? Such a cause can be maintained only by 
a practical subversion of all rights. It is, therefore, merely 
according to reason that its partisans should uphold the usurpa- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jjj 

tions in Kansas. To overthrow this usurpation is now the 
special, importunate duty of Congress, admitting of no hesita- 
tion or postponement. To this end it must Hft itself from the 
cabals of candidates, the machinations of party, and the low level 
of vulgar strife. It must turn from the slave oligarchy that now 
controls the Republic, and refuse to be its tool. Let its power 
be stretched forth towards this distant Territory, not to bind, 
but to unbind ; not for the oppression of the weak, but for the 
subversion of the tyrannical ; not for the prop and maintenance 
of a revolting usurpation, but for the confirmation of liberty. 
Let it now take its stand between the living and the dead, and 
cause this plague to be stayed. All this it can do ; and if the 
interests of slavery did not oppose, all this it would do at once, 
in reverent regard for justice, law, and order, driving far away 
all the alarms of war; nor would it dare to brave the shame and 
punishment of this great refusal. But the slave power dares any- 
thing ; and it can be conquered only by the masses of the people. 
From Congress to the people, I appeal. 

" ' With regret I come again to the Senator from South 
Carolina (Mr. Butler), who, omnipresent in this debate, over- 
flowed with rage at the simple suggestion that Kansas had 
applied for admission as a State ; and, with incoherent phrases, 
discharged the loose expectoration of his speech, now upon her 
representative, and then upon her people. There was no ex- 
travagance of the ancient Parliamentary Debate which he did 
not repeat ; nor was there any possible deviation from truth 
which he did not make, with so much passion, I am glad to add, 
as to save him from the suspicion of intentional aberration. But 
the Senator touches nothing which he does not disfigure — with 
error, sometimes of principle, sometimes of fact. He shows an 
incapacity of accuracy, whether in stating the Constitution or 
in stating the law, whether in the details of statistics or the 
diversions of scholarship. He can not open his mouth, but out 
there flies a blunder.' 

" In reply to Mr. Sumner's attack upon him, Mr. Mason, 
said : ' Mr. President, the necessities of our political position 
bring us into relations and associations upon this floor, which, in 
obedience to a common government, we are forced to admit. 
They bring us into relations and associations, which, beyond the 



JJ2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

walls of this chamber, we are enabled to avoid — associations 
here, whose presence elsewhere is dishonor, and the touch of 
whose hand would be a disgrace. They are the necessities of our 
political position ; and yet, Mr. President, it is not easy to bear 
them. Representing our States here, under a Constitution which 
we came here to obey, we are constrained to listen, from day to 
day, from sources utterly irresponsible, to language to which no 
gentleman would subject himself elsewhere. I say it is difficult 
to bear. We bear it from respect to the obligations of the Con- 
stitution, and in obedience to the constitutional trust which we 
have undertaken to perform. The Senator from South Carolina 
will return in good time to his place. He is now at home, where 
he has been for the last two weeks. I will say this, however, in 
the presence of the Senate, that when the Senator from Massa- 
chusetts dared, in this chamber, and among those who know the 
Senator from South Carolina, to connect his name with untruth 
— for he did so — he presented himself here as one utterly in- 
capable of knowing what truth is, utterly incapable of conceiving 
the perceptions of an honorable mind, when directed to the in- 
vestigation of truth. He presented himself as the cunning artifi- 
cer or forger, who knows no other use of truth than to give 
currency to falsehood ; who uses the beaten gold to enable him 
to pass ofif the false coin ; who distinguishes between that which 
is pure metal and that which is not so, only to enable him to 
deceive those who have trusted him here. 

" ' But, Mr. President, I did not intend to be betrayed into 
this debate. I have said that the necessity of political position 
alone brings me into relations with men upon this floor who 
elsewhere I can not acknowledge as possessing manhood in any 
form. I am constrained to hear here depravity, vice in its most 
odious form uncoiled in this presence, exhibiting its most loath- 
some deformities in accusation and villification against the 
quarter of the country from which I come ; and I must listen to 
it because it is a necessity of my position, under a common gov- 
ernment, to recognize as an equal politically, one whom to see 
elsewhere is to shun and despise. I did not intend to be be- 
trayed into this debate ; but I submit to the necessity of my posi- 
tion. I am here now united with an honored band of patriots, 
from the North equally with the South, to try if we can preserve 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



113 



and perpetuate those institutions which others are prepared to 
betray, and are seeking to destroy ; and I will submit to the 
necessity of that position at least until the work is accomplished. 
" ' What I desired chiefly to do, Mr. President, was to bring 
before the American people, and more especially the people 
represented by the Senator from Massachusetts, what he calls 
the supremacy of the ' slave power.' That Senator is not alone 
in exhibiting this power to the quarter of the country from which 
he comes. The ribald sheets of a depraved press in unison with 
that Senator, use the same language which he has used on this 
floor within the last twenty-four hours, though by another name 
— they call it the ' slaveocracy.' The Senator from New York 
(Mr. Seward), speaks of it as an ' oligarchy.' All these Con- 
federate Senators are loud in their denunciation of the ' slave- 
power.' They declare that it exercises a supreme control over 
the affairs of this Government. They taunt Senators who come 
here from States where there are no slaves, with submitting to 
it. And yet they have never told you what it is — never. What, 
then, is the ' slave-power ' which Senators denounce ? It is not 
the wealth of the slaveholding States, for the Senator from 
Massachusetts himself, by an extravagance of speech, declared 
here yesterday, that the productive industry of his own small 
State was greater than the whole cotton-growing labor of the 
South. 

Mr. Sumner : Three times greater. 

Mr. Mason : Three times greater ; be it so for the argu- 
ment. It is not the wealth of the South, then, which constitutes 
the 'slave power.' Is it the numerical strength? No; for in- 
disputably we are numerically in a minority. Is it in political 
power meted out by the Constitution to the States? No ; for we 
are in a minority in the Senate where the States are represented ; 
we are in a minority in the other branch where the people are 
represented numerically; and we are in a minority in the elec- 
toral college. 

" ' What, then, is the ' slave-power ' to which the Senator 
from Massachusetts, and all his confederates, so frequently refer? 
Mr. President, there is but one power left, and that is a great and 
controlling power, not alone in the halls of legislation, but in the 
world. It is the moral power of truth and justice; it is the moral 



it t 



jj^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

power which recognizes the obHgations of a compact, and 
observes it as you observe the compacts of honor; and when 
these Senators ascribe that power to the slaveholding States, 
they pay an involuntary, perhaps, but a high tribute to the insti- 
tution of slavery, which they denounce. 

" ' Now let the Senator survey the whole field of power to 
find whence the ' slave-power ' comes ; and when he admits, as 
he must admit, that it is not in wealth, or in numerical strength, 
or in the constitutional allotment of power, what is it? He says 
it exists ; that it is supreme ; that Presidents bend to it ; that 
Senators yield to it ; and his own acknowledgment of the exist- 
ence of the power, shows that his own morale feels it also. Let 
me ask him whence it comes. The picture is his, not mine. If 
there be any slave-power exerting an influence upon the counsels 
of this country, it is moral power diffused throughout the world, 
acknowledged everywhere, and to which kings and potentates 
bow — it is the moral power of truth ; adherence to the obliga- 
tions of honor, and the dispensation of those charities of life 
that ennoble the nature of man. That is the moral power which 
the Senator ascribes to the institution of slavery. 

" ' Now, Mr. President, if that be so, how ungrateful is that 
Senator and his State of Massachusetts. Whatever wealth it 
may have, and wealth it undoubtedly has, is the creature of this 
Federal Government ; for let them be separated from it, and they 
would dwindle, and decay, and die. What is their productive 
power? They are the carriers of the South, they are enriched 
by the exchanges of the South. We consume the fabrics of their 
looms ; and under the benefits of our commercial laws (all which 
the South has contributed, possessing the controlling power 
which the Senator ascribes to it), they have grown rich. They 
have grown rich by means of this very confederacy. I say, then, 
the Senator is ungrateful. He ascribes to that slave-power the 
controlling influence over this confederacy ; and yet is not grate- 
ful, as he should be, for the beneficent rule (and at their own 
expense) of this very ' slave-power.' 

" ' Mr. President, the first criminal known to the world, in 
the complaint which instigated him to crime, declared only that 
the ofifering of his brother was more acceptable than his. It was 
the complaint of Cain against Abel, and he avenged it by putting 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jj^ 

that brother to death, and then went forth with the primeval 
curse upon his brow. In the fortunes of those who are enhsted 
with the Senator from Massachusetts against this confederation 
now, let them go, as Cain did, with the curse upon their brow 
of fratricidal homicide ; but with the still deeper guilt that they 
instigate others to shed blood when they shed none themselves.' 

" Two days after the delivery of Mr. Sumner's speech, Mr. 
Preston S. Brooks, a member of the House of Representatives 
from South Carolina, came into the Senate Chamber, about an 
hour after the Senate had adjourned, and approaching Mr. 
Sumner, who was seated at his desk writing, said to him : 
' Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech carefully, and with as 
much calmness as I could be expected to read such a speech. 
You have libelled my State and slandered my relation, who is 
aged and absent, and I feel it to be my duty to punish you for 
it.' He then struck Mr. Sumner on and about his head with 
his walking-stick, and gave him numerous and severe blows 
which cut his head and disabled him, for the time being, from 
attending to his duties in the Senate. Mr. A. S. Murray, a 
member of the House from New York, came up behind Mr. 
Brooks, caught him by the body and the right arm, drew him 
back, and turned him around from Mr. Sumner. After Mr. 
Brooks had been ' pulled off,' Mr. Sumner fell over. 

" Committees of investigation were appointed, both in the 
Senate and by the House. Many witnesses were examined by 
both committees. The Senate committee reported that, in their 
opinion, the Senate could not proceed further in the case than to 
make complaint to the House of Representatives of the assault 
committed by one of its members upon the Senator from Massa- 
chusetts. 

" The House Committee presented reports from both the 
majority and the minority. The latter offered the resolution 
' That this House has no jurisdiction over the assault alleged to 
have been made by Honorable Preston S. Brooks, of South 
Carolina, upon the Honorable Charles Sumner, of Massachu- 
setts, and therefore deem it improper to express any opinion on 
the subject.' The report of the majority declared that * the said 
assault was a breach of the privileges of the Senate ; Therefore, 



Il6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

Resolved, That Preston H. Brooks be, and he is forthwith ex- 
pelled from this House as a Representative from the State of 
South Carolina.' 

"There was no material difference between the three 
reports, so far as regards the narrative of the facts of the case. 
The version here given is in strict accordance with that narra- 
tive. The testimony taken by the committees shows that Mr. 
Brooks had informed Mr. Keitt, of South Carolina, and Mr. 
Edmundson, of Virginia, both members of the House, that he 
intended to call Mr. Sumner to account for the offensive portion 
of his speech ; that he had not notified Mr. Sumner, or any one 
else, of his purpose, and that no one knew when or where he 
intended to execute that purpose. Two broken fragments of the 
cane were exhibited to the committee. The longest piece, the 
head, was 22 inches long, the smaller end having been broken oflf. 
It was one inch thick at the large end and three-quarters of an 
inch thick at the smaller end. It was hollow, the hollow being 
three-eighths of an inch in diameter at the small end, and seem- 
ing to increase proportionally to the head. 

" The resolution to expel Mr. Brooks was adopted by the 
House. He was, however, returned by his constituents and was 
re-sworn as a member of it before the close of the session. 

" The surgeon, who had been called in at the moment, tes- 
tified before the committee that he had dressed Mr. Sumner's 
wounds, and said : ' There were marks of three wounds on the 
scalp, but only two that I dressed. One was a very slight 
wound that required no attention. One was two and a quarter 
inches long, cut to the bone, cut under as it were, and very 
ragged. This wound has healed up without any suppuration 
at all. The other is not quite two inches long, and has healed 
up within about half an inch, and has suppurated. I look upon 
them simply as flesh wounds. His wounds do not necessarily 
confine him one moment. He would have come to the Senate 
on Friday, if I had recommended it. Perhaps I ought to state 
my reason for objecting to his coming out on Friday (the day 
after the assault). There was a great deal of excitement at that 
time, and I thought that if Mr. Sumner did not go into the 
Senate for a day or two the excitement might wear oflf. It was not 
on account of his physical condition : he was very anxious to go." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



117 



CHAPTER VI. 

Letter to Mr. Davis — Letter Declining Invitation to Dinner Given to Elec- 
toral College — Tribute to Memory of Hon. A P. Butler — Extract from 
Richmond Enquirer — Re-elected to Senate — Visit to Bunker Hill and to 
Boston— " Kansas Letter" — Speech on Admission of Kansas — Speech in 
Opposition to Pacific Railroad — Protest Against Bill Donating Public 
Lands to States that Provide Colleges for Benefit of Agriculture and the 
Mechanical Arts — John Brown Raid. 

A letter from Mr. Mason to Mr. Jefferson Davis, Secretary 
of War, written a few months after the foregoing incident, gives 
evidence of his appreciation, even at that early day, of the neces- 
sity for preparation, on the part of the Southern States, to meet 
and repel the invasion that he foresaw. This letter was probably 
left by Mr. Davis in his office in the War Department in Wash- 
ington, for it appeared in the New York Tribune during the 
war, while Mr. Mason was in England. It is here copied from 
the newspaper clipping found among his papers : 

From the New York Tribune, October, 1863 : 

" Another of Jeff. Davis' Letters — Preparations for a 
Rebellion as Early as 1856 — ^Villainous Proposition 
BY J. M. Mason — It Plainly Shows the Treasonable 
Purposes of the Writer at .the Time of its Date." 

" Selma, near Winchester, Virginia, 

September 30, 1856. 
"Hon. Jefferson Davis: 

" My Dear Sir : — I have a letter from * Wise of the 27th, 
full of spirit. He says the governments of North Carolina, 
South Carolina and Louisiana have already agreed to the ren- 
dezvous at Raleigh, and others will — this in your most private 
ear. He says further that he has officially requested you to 
exchange with Virginia, on fair terms of difference, percussion 
for flint muskets. I don 't know the usages or power of the 
Department in such cases, but if it can be done, even by liberal 
construction, I hope you will accede. 
*Hon. H. A. Wise, Governor of Virginia. 



jlS LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" Was there not an appropriation at the last session for 
converting flint into percussion arms? If so, would it not fur- 
nish good reason for extending such facilities to the States? 
Virginia probably has more arms than the other Southern States, 
and would divide in case of need. In a letter, yesterday, to a 
committee in South Carolina, I gave it as my judgment, in the 
event of Fremont's election, the South should not pause, but 
proceed at once to ' immediate, absolute, and eternal separation,' 
So I am a candidate for the first halter. 

* " Wise says his accounts from Philadelphia are cheering 
for §01d Buck in Pennsylvania. I hope they be not delusive. 
Vale et Salute. 

"J. M. MASON." 

This same letter was quoted in " The Life of Lincoln " 
published in Harper's Magazine. The interpretation put upon 
it in both instances -needs no comment. Nor does the letter 
require explanation to those who are informed concerning the 
laws regulating the distribution of arms to the militia of the 
several States by requisition of the Governors upon the War 
Department in Washington. 

The following letter, written a few months later, is of interest 
as it expresses more fully his views regarding the course to be 
pursued by Virginia : 

" Washington, December 2d, 1856. 
"Messrs. W. A. Patterson and others, Com't., 

" Gentlemen : — I have had the honor to receive your let- 
ter of 26th November, on behalf of the Democrats of Richmond, 
inviting me to a dinner to be given by them to-morrow in that 
city to the Electors of the President and Vice-President of the 
United States. 

" I had hoped it would be in my power to accept it, but I 
regret now to say that my engagements here will not admit 
of it. 

" I shall be with you, gentlemen, nevertheless in heart and 
sentiment, in rendering deserved honor to our noble Common- 

*Hon. H. A. Wise, Governor of Virginia. 

§Hon. James Buchanan, afterwards President of the United States. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



119 



wealth, in the persons of those who represent her in casting her 
electoral vote. 

" Virginia, the oldest of the States, and the pioneer to inde- 
pendence, has a great destiny to fulfil, and greatly has she 
realized that responsibility. True to the Constitution, because 
always true to herself, the waves of faction at home, or of dark 
conspiracy abroad, break harmlessly at her feet. Her honor is 
in her own keeping, and the sacred trust, transmitted from sire 
to sire, and from generation to generation, shall vindicate her 
position as "a free, sovereign, and independent Republic, sub- 
missive to her Federal obligations so long as they are respected 
by her associate Republics, but ready to assert and establish her 
separate existence when such submission is no longer consis- 
tent with honor. 

" With great respect, I am, gentlemen, yours very respect- 
fully, 

"J. M. MASON." 

Within a few days after the date of this letter, the death of 
Judge A. P. Butler, one of the Senators from South Carolina, 
was announced in the Senate by the surviving Senator from that 
State, Mr. Evans. In rising to second the resolutions of 
respect offered by Mr. Evans, Mr. Mason said : 

" I can add nothing, Mr. President, to the eloquent and able 
tribute just rendered by the venerable Senator from South 
Carolina to the memory of his late colleague. 

" It is more to indulge my own feelings of deep and sincere 
sympathy with those who survive, than from any hope that I may 
contribute even one poor leaf to the garlands around his tomb, 
that I ask the indulgence of the Senate for a brief moment in 
these sad ceremonials. 

" It was my good fortune to have known our deceased 
colleague, Andrew Pickens Butler, on terms of more intimate 
association than most Senators now around me. He took his 
seat in the Senate in December, 1846, and I followed him in 
January, 1847. Educated in the same political school, and thus 
drawn together in political circles here, habits of association 
were formed which, for the ten years that followed our entrance 
into the Senate, and until his death, found us under a common 
roof, at a common hearth, and sharing a common board. Our 



J20 I^Il^E OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

intercourse and association were in every sense fraternal. And 
you, Senators, who knew him best, will best appreciate the loss 
I am called to mourn in common with you. 

" Pickens and Butler united in him, mark the noble and 
gallant race from which he sprung; and he sealed in death a 
duty to his descendants, by transmitting both names to them 
without spot or blemish, as he had received them. Bayard-like, 
he bore them through life ' without fear and without reproach.' 
With that hardy morality which fears no contact, he mingled 
gracefully and graciously in the walks of life, alike with the most 
humble and the most exalted, honored and caressed by the one, 
loved and trusted by all. Thus, while the genial flow of a gen- 
erous and sympathizing spirit attracted him to all classes in life, 
his lofty and unbending integrity, manly purpose and unswerv- 
ing honor, assured to him the respect and unstinted confidence 
of all coming within his sphere. Distrust and suspicion were 
at once disarmed in his presence. Wherever else they might be 
found, there was no such atmosphere around him. 

" In forensic warfare, whether a friend or foe, all will bear 
witness alike to the true nobility of his nature. Bold, ardent, 
daring, and at times almost merciless when he joined in battle, 
yet there was no venom in any shaft that sped from his bow; 
and when the fight was done, his ready hand was equally 
extended, on whichever side victory might declare itself. He was 
an efficient debater ; more prone to, and perhaps more skilful in, 
attack than defence. 

" The rich and fertile resources of a well-stored mind proved 
that he was habitually a student ; and their skilful and sagacious 
use evinced that nothing rusted in his intellectual armor, but by 
thought and meditation was kept polished and on edge. Indeed, 
with him, the faculties of observation and meditation seemed 
more happily combined than it has been my lot to witness with 
other men. And then, nature, in its bounties, had added that 
great Creative Power which is the unerring mark, as it is the 
first instinct, of genius. His mind, in debate, seemed almost to 
overflow in the rapidity of its suggestions ; and yet there was 
realized in him that rare faculty of excellence which the ancients 
ascribed to the Grecian painter, Timanthes, of whom it was 
said : * Intelligitur plus semper, quam pingitur.' 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j2I 

" As a Senator, you will all bear witness that, whatever dif- 
ferences arose amongst us in the rivalries and contentions of 
political life, whatever part he bore in them, was always distin- 
guished by candor, loyalty, and good faith. In the organization 
of this body, he held for many years, and until death closed for- 
ever the scenes of this world, the Chair of that Committee which 
stands as the law adviser of the Senate, but the duties of which 
are frequently complicated with political questions, involving 
the success or defeat of political parties. 

" Who can forget how confidently and freely a minority was 
ever ready to commit all such questions to that committee, and 
how well that confidence was justified by its able, upright, and 
impartial decisions? The scales were held even, by a firm and 
resolute hand, however bitterness, prejudice, or distrust might 
seek to disturb the balance. 

" Born, nurtured, and reared in one of the most gallant of 
the ' Old Thirteen,' he loved and venerated her fame with 
instincts that were truly filial ; and as a child would defend a 
parent from insult or wrong; you have marked his eye kindle 
and fiash defiance, whenever called to vindicate the fame or 
honor of his State. His devotion and his first duty were to South 
CaroHna ; yet on the broader theatre of a common country, 
embracing all the States, his views were liberal, catholic, and fair, 
giving to each section its just and full share in whatever benefits 
or advantages flowed from a common Government. There his 
public service was directed with a single eye to the public good. 

" I have thus attempted, Mr. President, feebly to portray the 
Senator and the Statesman as he stood confessed before the 
country. But it was in the social and domestic circle — in paths 
not opened to the common view — that the richest gifts of nature 
to man, the latent virtues of the heart, shone with a lustre all 
their own. There was not an impulse there that was not gen- 
erous, genial and confiding. He sympathized with his race, and 
his whole race. If it was his fortune at some time ' debellare 
superbos,' that more grateful emotion was ever his, ' parcere 
vie t is.' 

" But I should not detain you longer with this poor memo- 
rial of the gallant dead. He sleeps beneath the soil of his own 



122 ^^^^ ^^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

loved Carolina, amidst those who loved and honored him in 
life, and who received his last sigh in death." 

Again the reader is referred to an extract from one of the 
Virginia newspapers for the verdict of his contemporaries 
regarding the manner in which Mr. Mason discharged the 
duties entrusted to him by his constituents. 

From the Washington correspondence of The Richmond 
Enquirer: 

" Washington, December 7th, 1856. 

" The debate in the Senate on the Message, during the last 
week, has furnished to the country the estimate placed on it 
by the Democratic party. Foremost among the moving minds 
of 'that august body, representing the conservative element of 
government, was Mr. Mason. It certainly gives a man a better 
opinion of his country and confirms his confidence in the con- 
stitutional vitality of the Federation, to listen to this Senator. 
The dignity of simplicity, the earnest force of conscious rectitude, 
the finish of the high-toned gentleman, the glow and ardor of 
true patriotism and genuine love of country, combine to make 
Mr. Mason one of the ablest defenders of the Constitution in 
the Senate. The range which the debate took indicated very 
clearly the smouldering feeling and burning indignation of the 
Democratic speakers. The opposition attempted in vain to 
drown their fire. The record fairly reported shows to the 
country on which side in this discussion the truth is to be 
found. To accumulate opposing facts, is not the worst manner 
of resisting wild assumptions and baseless theories. The head- 
ing of this debate might well be : ' Fact versus Fiction,' or ' The 
Constitution against Fanaticism.' " 

Still higher evidence of the approval of his constituents and 
the confidence reposed in him by his State was afforded by his 
re-election to the Senate for another term of six years, beginning 
on the fourth day of March, 1857. On this same day Mr. Buch- 
anan was inaugurated President of the United States, with the 
Honorable J. C. Breckenridge as Vice-President. One of the first 
acts of the new Vice-President was to. appoint Mr. Mason Regent 
of the Smithsonian Institute for the ensuing term of six years, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



123 



and thus to retain him in the position he had already held dur- 
ing the preceding eight years, from the time of his first appoint- 
ment in 1849. 

In the summer of 1857, Mr. Mason was invited to attend the 
ceremonies connected with the unveiling of the statue of Gen- 
eral Joseph Warren, on Bunker Hill, near Boston. The invita- 
tion came under gratifying circumstances, and was the more 
agreeable from the fact that he had never before visited any 
of the New England States, although he had formed, in Wash- 
ington, many pleasant acquaintances among their people. The 
visit proved in all respects exceedingly agreeable and interesting, 
and it was ever afterwards spoken of among his cherished remi- 
niscences of happier days. 

The following chpping from one of the Boston papers shows 
the like favorable impression that he made upon the Boston 
people : 

SENATOR MASON, OF VIRGINIA. 

" This gentleman, who spent the last week in Boston, seems 
to have created a very favorable impression among the Northern 
people. On Saturday, in company with Mayor Rice, he visited 
the public schools of the city, and in the afternoon inspected the 
factories at Lowell. The Post says : ' His genial and afifable 
manners, his generous estimate of what he saw and heard, and 
his gratification at the frank and cordial civilities ofifered to him 
on all hands, by the public authorities and individuals, were 
circumstances to host and guest which imparted unalloyed grati- 
fication to the parties interested.' 

" The speech of the honorable gentleman at Bunker Hill 
was appropriate, eloquent and national, and has received the 
warmest commendation. In his occasional brief addresses on 
various occasions during his sojourn — at Deer Island, at the 
Revere House, and at private tables where he had been called 
upon to acknowledge compliments to himself and to his State — 
he has exhibited a gracefulness of thought and a flowing, collo- 
quial, feeling diction, which have rendered his voice the most 
charming part of the numerous festive courtesies extended to 
him. 

" He will leave many newly formed acquaintances in Boston 



J2A LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

who will cherish his visit as among the most pleasing records 
of their memory ; and we are sure he will return to his own home 
with convictions in favor of men and facts here which will give 
additional ardor to his love for the Union, and increased strength 
to that fraternal feeling which is the only link that can render 
our nationality indissoluble." 

In the same newspaper has been found the following extract 
from the brief address he made, when called upon after the 
oration of the day had been concluded : 

" Mr. Mason said he had been honored by a generous in- 
vitation to witness the great and imposing spectacle which he 
had beheld, and he thought he came as a witness only. He 
had not thought he should be called upon to become an actor 
in the scene. He was now, for the first time, present on Bunker 
Hill, and in the presence of the descendants and successors of 
that gallant and devoted band who laid down their lives on this 
soil that we might live as freemen. ' They have left you, my 
countrymen,' he said, ' a heritage such as has not been before 
known to the world since the most palmy days of Greece and 
Rome, the heritage of an immortal name, and more than that, 
the heritage of their great example.' 

" Who were they? The country people met in a hurry. And 
why? To meet the veterans of Old England on the soil of an 
English colony, that they might evince to the world their spirit 
of English resistance to tyranny from any quarter. And that 
gallant man whom you have all in honoring honored yourselves, 
that gallant man who was the most distinguished victim upon 
this distinguished field, this field of Bunker Hill, could he have 
returned from it, although he could not have said, as his Spartan 
predecessor at Thermopylae, that they had laid down their lives 
in obedience to Sparta's laws, for there were no laws then, as 
British rule had ended and American had not begun, he might 
have said to Massachusetts : ' Tell it to your sons in Massachu- 
setts, and let it be handed down from generation to generation, 
that here upon Bunker Hill was laid the corner-stone of 
American independence and cemented with our blood.' 

" The audience has been well and truthfully told by the 
orator of the day, that at Bunker Hill, 82 years ago, the rule of 
the British Empire ceased upon this continent. Battles were 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



125 



fought, and bitter privations were suffered afterward, but the 
British rule ended on this Hill 82 years ago. If that great and 
gallant Warren could have returned from the battle-field and 
told his descendants to hand down the memory of that day from 
generation to generation, he would have found his request per- 
formed. 

" Four generations have passed away and we are here in 
the fifth now. I shall tell it in old Virginia when I return to her 
blessed hills, that I found the spirit of Massachusetts as buoy- 
ant, as patriotic, as completely filled with the emanations that 
should govern patriotism when I visited Bunker Hill, as it was 
when that battle was fought. I am authorized to say so ; else 
why this inspiring assemblage ; why that interminable procession 
of which I formed, by your kind invitation, a very humble part ; 
why those streamers from every house and from every window ; 
and why is all the beauty of your beautiful city assembled waving 
their handkerchiefs and streaming their banners of welcome to 
the commemoration of this day? I shall feel myself authorized 
to say to the people of Virginia that the spirit of Bunker Hill yet 
remains at Bunker Hill. 

" And now, my countrymen, something was said by the 
very eloquent and honored gentleman who represents Connec- 
ticut in deprecation of that dishonored day which should witness 
this great Confederation broken into fragments ; I sympathize 
with him. I am here to say to you people of Massachusetts, that 
our Government is a government whose only sanction is in the 
honor and the good faith of the States of this Union, and to 
proclaim that so long as there are honor and good faith in the 
States and in the people of the States, the Union will be per- 
petuated. I invoke you here on Bunker Hill, coming from my 
own honored State in the far South, I invoke of you all that you 
shall require of those who represent you, that they administer 
the Government as it was founded by our fathers under the 
Constitution, and not otherwise. I would ask the spirit of the 
patriot who has departed from us, if he can look down upon 
that earth which he once honored, to inspire you all with that 
feeling which would require that the Government should be 
administered under the Constitution in honor and in good faith. 

" Mr. President, I thank you again, and the Association of 



J26 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

which you are the worthy head, for having given me the oppor- 
tunity of witnessing this great spectacle on Bunker Hill, and 
enabling me to take back to my people the assurance that the 
spirit of Bunker Hill yet lives in Massachusetts." 

An article in The Galaxy (Vol. 15, January to June, 
1873), by Mr. Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy, from 1861 
to 1869, confirms this account of the hospitality and considera- 
tion accorded to Mr. Mason while in Boston ; although it gives 
a far less flattering report of both guests and hosts. Speaking 
of the " Trent Afifair," and of the resolution offered by Mr. 
Colfax in the House of Representatives, to the effect that J. M. 
Mason should be confined as hostage for Colonel Michael 
Corcoran and should be treated as a convicted felon, Mr. Wells 
further says of Mr. Mason : " Professing a deep regard for 
State Rights, and, when he entered the Senate, profound venera- 
tion for the Federal Constitution, he, nevertheless, introduced 
a bill for the capture and rendition of fugitive slaves, a measure 
that was more arbitrary and centralizing than any previously 
proposed by the ultra-consolidationists of Massachusetts. A 
visit he made to Boston, after his success in imposing upon the 
people the Fugitive Slave Law, where he was received with 
sycophantic adulation, convinced him the Yankees were defi- 
cient in manly spirit and needed Virginians to govern and incul- 
cate in them self-respect." 

Mr. Mason seems to have impressed those who saw and 
heard him as being very unlike the idea Mr. Wells would give of 
him. Again, Mr. Wells apparently ignored the decision of the 
Supreme Court of the United States made in the case "Priggs vs. 
Pennsylvania, ' That the Pennsylvania Statute, forbidding the 
carrying of any negro out of the State in order to enslave him, 
was unconstitutional, since it conflicted with the National 
Fugitive Slave Act> of 1793.'" The bill he referred to, and of 
which Mr. Mason was the author in 1850, was, as the title 
shows, " An Act to amend and supplementary to an act entitled 
' An Act respecting Fugitives from Labour and Justice, 
approved February 12th, 1793.' " 

A letter to the editor of The South, published in Washing- 
ton, D. C, written in the summer of 1857, is interesting. It is 
dated. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



i2y 



" Winchester, Va., July 22d, 1857. 

" Dear Sir : — In your paper of Monday last, in an article 
headed ' Walker's Usurpation,' I observed the following para- 
graph : 

" ' But we are told that Hunter and Mason, and other distin- 
guished Southern Senators, in the debate on the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, expressed the same opinion, that Kansas must 
be a free State, etc' 

" I can not undertake to say what opinions may have been 
expressed by my honored colleague or by other Senators from 
the South, in reference to the probable condition of Kansas ; 
though from a general knowledge of their views in regard to 
that territory, I should not doubt that any opinions so expressed, 
would have reference to circumstances necessarily qualifying 
them. To avoid misconstruction, however, I think it proper to 
say that I never expressed the opinion ascribed to me ; because 
I never entertained it. At the time the law passed, organizing the 
Territorial Government, there were few with whom I conversed 
who did not believe that the future State would take its place 
with those recognizing and cherishing the condition of African 
Slavery. 

" There was at that time, certainly, every reason to believe 
why this should be so, and none why it should not. 

" The State of Missouri, bordering its eastern frontier, was 
a slaveholding State, holding, at that time, nearly an hundred 
thousand slaves, and these were chiefly held in the border coun- 
ties. The State of Arkansas, adjacent to the Territory on the 
south, was likewise a slaveholding State. 

" The soil and climate of Kansas were well adapted to 
those valuable products, chiefly hemp and tobacco, which gave 
value to slave labor in Missouri. The proximity of its popula- 
tion, with the attractions of new, fertile, and cheap land, I believe 
would lead the slaveholders in Missouri to dififuse themselves 
speedily over Kansas, and the prohibitory line of 36 degrees and 
30 minutes being obliterated, there was no reason why they 
should not. I had no fear of fair competition in such appro- 
priation of the new Territory from any quarter. Unfair compe- 
tition I did not look to. What may yet be the result as to the 
condition of Kansas, notwithstanding the extraordinary and 



J28 I^IPE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



unscrupulous efforts of Northern Abolitionists to force a popula- 
tion there, I can not undertake to say. Nor will I allude, in 
this place, to the new and unexpected aspect now exhibited of 
affairs in that Territory, with so much propriety reprehended in 
the columns of The South. 

" Whatever may be the information of others, I certainly 
am not sufBciently informed of the existing state of things in 
Kansas, to form a clear opinion one way or the other ; yet I 
will venture to say this much, that if African Slavery be ulti- 
mately excluded from Kansas, it will be effected by numerical 
force of organized majorities, operating against the usual laws 
which govern emigration, and will present a new and most 
instructive lesson to the Southern States. 

" Very respectfully I am yours, &c., &c., 

" T. M. MASON." 

In close connection with this letter, come the extracts from 
his speech in the Senate, made on March 15th, 1858, when the 
bill for the admission of Kansas into the Union was under con- 
sideration. He then said: 

" In the remarks which I am to submit before the Senate, 
I desire to review, as briefly as I may, the history of the events 
and causes which have brought the question of African bondage 
into discussion before the American Congress, in connection 
with the expansion of the country in the addition of new States, 

" The question of slavery, as it has existed upon this con- 
tinent for more than two hundred years, was, before our colonial 
independence, a subject of no contention whatever between the 
colonies — none that I have been able to trace. It was found 
after the Declaration of Independence (when the colonies, before 
that time perfectly independent of each other, came together to 
form a common government, in a spirit of fraternity that I wish 
could actuate States and statesmen now), that the existence of 
African bondage was, to a large extent, confined to the South- 
ern States ; but still it existed in all the States. The subject of 
this form of servitude became a question of discussion in the 
Federal Convention upon the inquiry whether those subject to 
it should be treated, in the formation of the government, as an 
element of political power. It constituted a part of theiwpopula- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j2g 

tion ; it was their property, conceded on all hands ; and it became 
immediately a sine qua non to the formation of any common gov- 
ernment, on the part of the Southern colonies, that their African 
slaves should constitute an element of political power in the 
colonies where they were found. It was a subject of great delib- 
eration, as all Senators know who have looked back into the 
history of the country. 

" Many most disturbing questions arose in that convention 
— questions naturally springing out of the dissimilarity of inter- 
ests and the dissimilarity in the pursuits of labor — questions 
between the planting States and the commercial and navigating 
States, and other questions, that arose upon the demand of the 
smaller States to stand as equals in the Confederacy, by an 
equality of representation in one branch of the National Coun- 
cils ; but there lay at the bottom of all, as was conceded by the 
patriots and statesmen of that day, this question of domestic 
servitude in the population of the Southern States, as the most 
difficult to adjust. Senators will find, in looking back to the 
proceedings of the convention, that one of its greatest minds and 
most illustrious members — I mean the late James Madison — 
when there seemed to be an almost irreconcilable rupture 
between the large and the small States, on the question of equal 
representation, told them, all that could be overcome; should 
they go back and settle the political relations of African bonds- 
men in the Confederacy, they would find the rest of more easy 
adjustment. It was done, and resulted in the stipulation of the 
second section and first article of the Constitution, by which 
three-fifths of the slaves were to be computed in fixing decen- 
nially the ratio of representation, thus constituting the slave 
population an element of political power. 

" Now, sir, statesmen may look at this subject as they 
please, but they will be brought, of necessity, back to this very 
question of representation of the slaves as the true point of 
division between the diflferent sections of the country. Sir, if 
that was not fixed by the Constitution as an element of political 
power in the South, the sickly sentiment of the North, now so 
sedulously nursed by their politicians, against African bondage, 
would find little sympathy at their hands. Let us meet the 
question, then, as men and as statesmen, and, I trust, also as 
patriots. 



130 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" When did it first arise since the Confederation — I mean 
the question of political power in the Confederacy, resulting 
from this slave representation? It was first agitated in the 
attempt made in 1820, upon a question exactly such as agitates 
our councils now — the admission of a new State into the Con- 
federacy. What was attempted then? To make it a condition 
of admission that the State should abolish slavery within her 
limits; and, if I recollect aright the history of that day, a dis- 
tinguished Senator on this floor, then representing the State of 
New York (Rufus King), frankly avowed that the purpose of the 
condition was to impair the political power of the Southern 
States. He honestly avowed it, without subterfuge or evasion; 
it was then frankly avowed, that the condition sought to be 
imposed on Missouri was to prevent the expansion of political 
power in the South, by the constitutional right of slave repre- 
sentation. 

" What was the result? The State of Missouri, then con- 
stituting a part of that large country derived by us from France 
as the Territory of Louisiana, was admitted upon condition — a 
condition unknown to the Constitution. The State of Missouri 
was admitted upon condition that a parallel latitude should 
be drawn across the whole territory of Louisiana; and whilst 
slavery should be excluded north of it, there was no guarantee 
that it should be admitted south of it. The prohibition was, 
that north of the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 minutes this invol- 
untary s^ervitude, as it was termed, should be forever excluded. 
And this unconstitutional restriction became handed down, in 
the traditionary history of the times, as the * Missouri Com- 
promise.' 

" Mr. President, I have yet to see the Southern statesman, 
looking back to the history of that day, and to the consequences 
which followed, who does not deplore in his heart that a final 
stand on the part of the Southern States, based on the securities 
of the Constitution, was not made there and then, and no step 
taken backwards. But the law passed; Missouri was admitted 
upon condition that involuntary servitude, except for crime, 
should be forever prohibited north of the line prescribed; and 
that passed, as I have said, in the traditionary history of the 
day, as a compromise. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jjj 

" Well, we have believed, on our side ever since, that com- 
promise or no compromise, it had no warrant in constitutional 
law. Time ran by, and it was acquiesced in. There was no 
express agreement, but a sort of tacit understanding, for the 
peace and repose of the country, that if, on one side they would 
fairly commit themselves to that line, we would assent that 
slavery should not extend north of it if they would assent that 
it should be extended south of it. How were we met? This line 
honorable Senators from the North, and those whom they rep- 
resent, now speak of as a line founded in sacred compact, that 
was intended to give repose and peace to the country, and did 
give it ; and yet, when in after years further territory was acquired 
west of the Territory of Louisiana, and the proposition was 
made to carry out the ' compromise ' by extending the line, it 
was met by a decided refusal. Here, in 1848, when we were 
organizing the territory of Oregon, it was insisted that this inter- 
dict should be placed on that Territory, far north as it was, and 
the proposition was made — not from me; I had the honor then 
of a seat upon this floor, but no such proposition ever came 
from me ; but a proposition was made from Southern men, again, 
if they could, to secure the repose and peace of the country by 
extending that line to the Pacific ; and according to my recollec- 
tion, almost every vote from the Northern States was against 
it. 

" So far to the contrary were they, indeed, from adhering 
to any compromise, that on the very first proposition to organ- 
ize a territorial government in one of the new Territories, public 
men, representing the interests of the non-slaveholding States, 
exhumed from the dust of a half century the ordinance of 1787, 
and presented it to the country as a chart of republican freedom 
from our fathers, containing within it, as they alleged, a repudia- 
tion of the condition of slavery, and recommended it for a like 
interdict in all the new Territories, giving birth to what was 
called, from the gentleman who first presented it, the ' Wilmot 
Proviso.' The ordinance of 1787, or this clause in the ordi- 
nance, has been resorted to from that day to this as evidence 
that, even before the foundation of the present Government, our 
fathers looked to a power in the United States to affect, by eman- 
cipation or otherwise, the condition of African bondage on the 
continent. 



JJ2 I'lF^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" Now, Mr. President, the people of that day have all 
passed from among us, but they have left some memorials 
behind; and I have one here from the same venerated man to 
whom I have before alluded, showing in what policy that clause 
in the ordinance of 1787 was founded. It was not intended in 
any manner to affect the condition of African bondage, as it then 
existed upon the continent. It was aimed as a blow against 
the foreign African slave trade, and nothing more. 

" Mr. President, years after the pseudo-compromise, made 
on the occasion of admitting the State of Missouri, this sixth 
article of the ordinance of 1787 was exhumed, perverted, and 
successfully applied without warrant of constitutional law by 
the Congress of the United States, under the name of the 
* Wilmot Proviso,' to the Territory of Oregon ; thus showing a 
determination on the part of Congress, whatever result might 
follow, to carry out that policy, in prohibiting the expansion of 
slavery on the continent. We all know the deep sensation pro- 
duced at the South by the adoption of this proviso; the inter- 
dict was denounced as unconstitutional ; and although applied to 
a Territory far north of the Missouri line, it was looked upon at 
the South as the manifestation of a fixed policy to prevent the 
further extension of a slave population, which if persevered in 
could only end in dissolution. 

" In 1848, after the peace with Mexico, we acquired a large 
territory from her, embracing California. It became necessary 
to provide Governments for the population actually there, not in 
California alone, but in New Mexico; and instantly upon the 
proposition to organize Territorial Governments for these peo- 
ple, then living without a Government, this demand of interdic- 
tion was at once set up in both Houses of Congress. It was 
successfully resisted, so far as to prevent its being done, but at 
the cost of leaving these people, whom we had acquired under 
the faith of treaty, without a Government for a period of some 
two years. 

" I want to trace the history frankly, and I hope truthfully, 
that we may the better understand the exact position of the ques- 
tion now presented on the admission of Kansas. Under the 
auspices of a very able and successful statesman of that day from 
Kentucky, the late Mr. Clay, a new scheme of adjustment was 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^, 

suggested to the American people, by a series of what was called 
' Compromise measures.' I will not go over them here further 
than to show the result to have been the violent admission of 
an additional non-slaveholding State, with an equivocal post- 
ponement of the question of future prohibition of slavery in the 
new Territories. I was one of those who were opposed to this 
new (so styled) compromise. I never knew a compromise made 
between a majority and a minority, unless on a basis by which 
the majority establishes a position for further aggression at a 
future day; and I think the history of all the compromises on 
the question of slavery, so far as they have progressed, warrants 
that conclusion. It was done. CaHfomia was admitted into 
the Union as a free State; not objected to by Southern men 
because it was a free State, but objected to because of the 
machinery that was put in practice to produce that very elTect, 

" Now, Mr. President, let us come back to the Kansas ques- 
tion. A law was passed creating territorial governments in 
Kansas and Nebraska, according to their appropriate boun- 
daries. The question of slavery was left open to be decided by 
the people to be affected by it, as I have said, in consequence, not 
of the spirit only, but the letter of the laws of 1850. 

"What was the next step? Hardly was the ink dry by 
which the bill became a law, when there was fulminated from the 
Halls of Legislation here a manifesto to all the abolition societies 
of the North, telling them that the Territory, was thrown open 
to population and inviting and encouraging them, under every 
stimulant that could arouse their passions or excite their hopes, 
to throw their people into it with the utmost rapidity. I do not 
claim to be wiser than others, but yet have some knowledge of 
humanity and of my fellow-men ; and I say that the state of 
things that has existed in Kansas ever since; events which 
Senators delight in depicting as the efforts of great and noble- 
minded freemen to vindicate their rights ; scenes of blood, rapine, 
and murder, disgraceful to the age, of fraud and violence in every 
form of licensed depravity, were but the legitimate consequences 
of throwing (by artificial means altogether) a population utterly 
irresponsible into a common Territory, under instructions, if 
not under contract, to carry out the political views of those who 
sent them. 



jj^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" The emigrant aid societies formed a new feature in the 
laws governing emigration in our country — societies that were 
got up with large capital for the purpose of throwing a popula- 
tion into the Territory of Kansas at once which should pre- 
occupy it, in order that politicians might effect what the laws had 
prohibited, in regard to the expansion of slavery. 

" I do not mean to say that we had any law, or could pass 
any law, prohibiting these societies ; but do mean to say, before 
the American people, and before posterity, that those who were 
instrumental in getting up such societies, and in carrying 
through their objects, are responsible for the bloodshed and 
rapine, and murder, and the utter destitution of every moral 
principle which have disgraced that Territory ever since. 

" Slaveholders from the adjacent and contiguous States, 
and from a distance, went there, as they had a right to do, with 
their slaves, and mingled with this population. The Territory at 
once became a scene of contention and strife, because they found 
it pre-occupied by men who had been sent there under contract 
for the very purpose of excluding them. Civil war almost ensued 
— civil strife certainly did. It was necessary to- bring in the strong 
arm of Federal power through the military force, in order to 
repress it. Soldiers were quartered there for more than two 
years to keep peace amongst the people, and to make them 
obedient to the laws. What, then, did we find on the part of the 
emigrant aid societies in the New England States? Pen and 
pulpit were employed alike to fan the flame and to supply the 
munitions for civil war in the Territory of Kansas ; sermons were 
preached ; the popular mind was stirred up from its foundations 
to induce them to contribute money and fire-arms to be used in 
Kansas against their fellow-countrymen. 

" If that is the sort of government which these peace and 
order-loving people prefer, be it so. Our duty only is to see that 
the laws are enforced ; that the laws are obeyed ; that the institu- 
tions of the country are preserved unimpaired, and not made the 
sport either of reckless fanaticism or the calmer calculations of 
reckless aspirants. 

" I think the President at the head of the last administration, 
as well as the present, have done no more than their duty in 
seeing that the laws were duly enforced by the full use of the 
military power. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j oc 

" I will not trace the condition of slavery, as belonging to 
the African, back to the Bible, because, although I recognise that 
as the law which to a great extent governs the relations between 
man and man, yet it is not a law which is to be enforced by any 
human tribunal. I will not undertake to say that the African got 
his condition of slavery jure divino, although it has been so 
ascribed. It is enough for me that such is the fact. I know of 
no race of men now upon the earth whose original normal con- 
dition was that of slavery but the African. You find him pre- 
cisely in the same form of slavery in every land where he has 
gone, and at every age of his existence — at home a slave, abroad 
a slave; and when that slavery of the African is brought within 
the influences of civilization, we know, upon the experience of 
our continent at least, that it has elevated him very far beyond 
the uttermost conceptions of his ancestors in the scale of being. 
The African upon this continent, in the bondage to which he is 
subjected here, compared with the African in his own country 
upon the continent of Africa, might be compared to the differ- 
ence between a high degree of civilization and the lowest condi- 
tion of the savage. 

" I will not undertake to say, or even to suggest, what great 
ends the Supreme Ruler of the world may have designed, and is 
now executing in the transfer of a portion of the African Race 
to this continent; but I have seen what feeble results have been 
obtained from the attempt to carry him back to his own con- 
tinent. There is a philanthropic society, now in existence, 
formed some thirty or forty years ago, originating, I think, with 
some statesman of Virginia, intended to import the African back 
to his own country. I know that the colony which that society 
has established has been maintained as a very feeble colony only 
by the strong arm of civilized power to this day. 

" I know that wherever the African, even after he has been 
civilized in bondage, has been left to himself, he has lapsed into 
barbarism and savageism. I can not, therefore, but entertain 
a hope that there is some great end to be attained by the Deity 
who rules over all races, in the subjection of the African to bond- 
age upon this continent, because I know that whilst in bondage 
he improves in civilization, and when he is freed from bondage 
he sinks in the scale of humanity. 



136 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" Mr. President, if the States and the people of the States 
would only look at the things as they are, they see that we have 
a continent here peculiarly fitted for that priceless form of gov- 
ernment which we have adopted, and a government equally 
fitted for the continent. There was an impression, I know, 
actuating the minds of many of our early statesmen, that our 
forms of government were not susceptible of expansion, but that, 
in course of time by its very expansion, the Government would 
break to pieces of its own weight. So far as I can read the great 
mission of popular government upon this continent, the very 
reverse is to be the result. If there be a government on earth 
that is susceptible of indefinite expansion, it is the Government 
of these States. What are they? A confederation of equal 
sovereigns, each member of the confederacy a separate organized 
political community; and if one or more should fall from the 
confederacy, at the very instant of the severance such State 
would be a perfect whole, and in the immediate exercise of every 
function that pertains to government — teres atque rotundus — an 
executive, a legislative, a judiciary department, organized with 
officers capable of exercising every function of independent 
power; hardly requiring any additional legislation but what 
might be necessary to make provision for foreign intercourse. If 
the American mind could only be brought to look on this Gov- 
ernment in its true character, and remit to the States what be- 
longs to them — the exclusive jurisdiction of their own affairs 
within their own limits — not interfering with them, but adhering 
to the behests of the Constitution, and administering only those 
great Federal powers which were conferred upon the common 
government for the common good of the whole, in the admin- 
istration of which, appropriately done, there would be no inter- 
ference or collision with State authorities ; what would be the 
result? State after State might come into the Union ; they might 
expand as they have done, from thirteen to thirty-one, and to 
sixty-one, and to one hundred and one ; and they would all re- 
volve as harmoniously around their common orbit, the Federal 
Government, as did the original thirteen; susceptible of expan- 
sion to any extent, and stronger as they expanded. And as if to 
anticipate such expansion in the advancement of the arts of 
civilized life, the telegraphs and railroads of modern construe- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^y 

tion lend their powerful aid to bind them together by agencies 
that annihilate time and space. 

" What then is proposed? To get a political party into 
power by crushing out of existence one of the greatest agencies 
of civilization the world has ever known — destroying not only 
the constitutional, but the domestic harmony, that fraternal re- 
gard, that should ever actuate citizens of a common country. 
Violence and discord, detection and calumny, are badly calcu- 
lated to promote good will or to retain communities in friendly 
relations. If the great American mind could only be made to 
realize what would be the condition of things if their public 
agents were kept within the limits of constitutional control, 
they would see, as I sometimes venture (I hope without Utopian 
vision) to contemplate, this Government extended over a con- 
federation of States, the number of which shall be limited only 
by the boundless expanse of a continent stretching from sea to 
sea ; State after State entering the Union ; and each received with 
that cordial welcome which should signalize the access of a new 
confederate of common lineage, ranging side by side under a 
common destiny. To what may we not aspire if this great and 
prosperous confederacy can be preserved? But if it must be 
otherwise, let the responsibility rest where impartial history shall 
assign it." 

True to his convictions and resolute in his purpose to resist 
all and every usurpation by Congress of power not given to it 
by the Constitution, Mr. Mason opposed strenuously the build- 
ing of the Pacific Railroad. In January, 1859, he said in the 
Senate : 

" I can not vote for the bill because I can not see that, under 
the charter of our power — the Constitution — we have any 
authority whatever to touch the subject in any form. Mr. Presi- 
dent, for some reason, I will not undertake to say what, a large 
majority of the Senate look upon the scheme of building this 
magnificent road as one not only entitled to the greater share of 
their attention in their public duties, but they assume that it 
attracts the attention of the whole country. I do not know how 
that may be. Senators on the other side of the chamber, and 
some on ours, have undertaken to say, and they may be right, 
that although there is a large majority of Senators here who are 



ijS 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



prepared to vote for a railroad, yet the strange phenomenon is 
presented that they can not get a bill which will conciliate a 
majority. Now what does that mean? The history of the 
measure has been written during this session. Why do they not 
agree? They do not agree because they can not arrange among 
themselves upon the Atlantic terminus of the road. Well, what 
does that mean? It means that that large interest which they 
claim to represent, and, I daresay, do represent, does not regard 
the road itself, and the advantages to result from the construc- 
tion of the road, but regards the sectional advantages. It is not 
the road they go for, but it is the improvement of the country 
which the road will pervade. That is the reason they can not 
agree. 

"Sir, their whole conduct here has demonstrated it. Pro- 
pose a Northern terminus, and the center and the South vote 
against it. Take a middle terminus, and both the North and 
South vote against it. Take a Southern terminus, and the other 
two vote against it. All agreeing, they say, that the road ought 
to be made ; all agreeing, as they say, that it is a subject of great 
national importance to make the road, and it being a matter of 
no importance where the road begins or where it ends, provided 
it begins on the Atlantic and ends on the Pacific; yet it is im- 
possible for them to conciliate a majority, because if it is a 
Northern road the other two are against it, and if it is a South- 
ern road the intermediate section and the North are against it. 

" Mr. President, I do not know any form in which this bill 
can be put that will authorize me to vote for it. I am prepared 
to say here, at once, that if you were to introduce a bill to com- 
mence this road on the Potomac River, and carry it through the 
whole breadth of Virginia and the tier of the Southern States, 
and thence by the Gila, or by any other route, to the Pacific, 
whether it was to be constructed by Federal money or by Federal 
organization, I would vote against it; and I should forfeit, 
deservedly forfeit, the confidence of my constituency if I did not 
do so. So there is no form in which any bill can be presented 
which will conciliate my vote. 

" Other Senators who regard the working of this Federal 
machine in a light very different from that in which I regard it, 
may consider that the time has been wasted. I am rather dis- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jjg 

posed to think that if time has not been economized, constitu- 
tional right has, and we gain something even by the waste of 
time. I submit to the Senate, and I submit to the country, that 
we have gained this ; we have gained information that will go 
before the American people to demonstrate that this great 
Pacific Railroad, so worthy of the great resources of this nation, 
as we are told, but, as I think, so fatal to the obligations of the 
constitutional compact, has received its death-blow at the hands 
of its friends. I think they will find, if they take the vote to-day, 
that this will be the day of its interment, I hope never to have a 
resurrection." 

Again on February ist of the same year his voice was heard 
in earnest protest against " A bill donating public lands to the 
several States and Territories which may provide colleges for 
the benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanical Arts." He then 
said: 

" The very decided vote by which this bill has been made to 
supersede the annual appropriation bills, which are usually con- 
sidered the most important bills at the close of the session, I 
presume indicates that it is the sense of the Senate that the bill 
shall pass in some form. What I have to say, therefore, can not 
be so appropriately addressed to the Senators present, to in- 
fluence, if I could expect to influence their judgment, as to in- 
form those outside of the Senate, and more especially those 
whom I have the honor to represent here, of another instance 
of the practical working of this Federal Government. 

" Sir, to my conception, it is one of the most extraordinary 
engines of mischief under the guise of gratuities and donations, 
that I could conceive would originate in the Senate. It is using 
the public lands as a means of controlling the policy of the 
State Legislatures. It is misusing the property of the country 
in such mode as to bring the appropriate functions of the State 
entirely within the scope of the bill, under the discretion of Con- 
gress by a controlling power ; and it is doing it in the worst and 
most insidious form — by bribery, direct bribery, and bribery of 
the worst kind; for it is an unconstitutional robbing of the 
Treasury for the purpose of bribing the States. That is exactly 
what is to be found in the substance of this bill, as I look upon 
the Constitution. 



J. (J LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" Sir, where do you get the power? If you have the right to 
use the pubHc property, or the pubHc money either, to estabhsh 
agricultural colleges, can not you establish a school system in 
each State for purposes of education? Would it not be in the 
power of a majority in Congress to fasten upon the Southern 
States that peculiar system of free schools in the New England 
States which, I believe, would tend, I will not say to demoralize, 
but to destroy that peculiar character which I am happy to 
believe belongs to the great mass of the Southern people. Ay, 
those New England free schools, upon which they pride them- 
selves, and that system of social organization in reference to 
those free schools, might just as well be ingrafted on the policy 
of all the States by means of this same bribing process by which 
they here propose to establish agricultural colleges, or any other 
system, I care not what. 

" I do not know what States may be induced, if the bill 
should pass, to become the eleemosynary recipients of the bounty 
of the Government thus given to them ; but I know whatever 
States do it, will place themselves in that relation to the Federal 
Government which will inevitably lead their people to believe 
that the Federal Government is not only the source of office and 
honour, but that it is the source of alms; for public charity is 
dealt out to the States as States, and the assent of the States is 
asked by this bill to become the recipient of the alms of the 
Federal Government. 

" Sir, the bill is fraught with mischief. Its unconstitu- 
tionality, which I do not mean to press upon gentlexnen at all, 
but to which I desire to call the attention of my constituents, is 
bad enough. Its utter inexpediency, its tendency to mischief, 
its inordinate character as a precedent in bringing within the 
Federal Government, within that great vortex of the Govern- 
ment which does hold the purse of the nation, almost the entire 
purse of the nation, I say as a precedent for similar exercises 
of power, there could not be projected, in my judgment, a 
measure more fraught with mischief. About the details of the 
bill, I know very little and care a great deal less. It is the 
principle ; not the principle alone of giving away that which you 
have no right to dispose of in that form, but the manner and 
purpose for which it is done, holding out a bribe to the States 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



141 



to conform their agricultural policy to the superior wisdom of 
Congress." 

History records the triumph of the Abolitionists in exclud- 
ing the Southern people from the new State of Kansas. It also 
records the attempt made, in 1859, to incite an insurrection 
among the slaves in Virginia and to induce them to carry death 
and destruction into the homes in which they had always lived 
peacefully and happily, and in which they were better fed, better 
clothed and better cared for in sickness and old age than has 
been, or is now the case anywhere in the world, with the poorer 
class of working people, or in many of the factories either in this 
country or in Europe, England included. 

This outrage, generally known as the " John Brown Raid," 
occurred on Sunday night, October i6th, 1859. And on the first 
day of the next session of Congress (December 5th, 1859), Mr. 
Mason offered a resolution in the Senate that, " A select com- 
mittee be appointed to inquire into the late invasion and seizure 
of the public property at Harper's Ferry." In supporting this 
resolution he said : " What I design and hope to ascertain by 
this investigation is, from what source the funds and the counsels 
were obtained that led to or induced that invasion." 

Few historians have made more than passing allusions to 
this raid; and John Brown has been continually described as a 
hero, and a martyr in the cause of freedom. A brief statement 
of the facts of the case is given to enable the reader to form an 
opinion regarding the true character of the " raid," and to 
determine whether it might not be justly attributed to the in- 
fluence of the Abolitionists of the Republican party in the 
Northern States. 

Two reports were presented to the Senate by the " Special 
Committee," one of them was signed by J. M. Mason, chairman, 
Jefiferson Davis and G. N. Fitch ; the other by J. CoUamer and 
J. R. Doolittle. They do not, however, differ as to the events at 
Harper's Ferry, Mr. Mason's report goes more into the detail 
and includes the testimony of those examined by the Committee. 
The following narrative is in accordance with both these reports : 

Mr. CoUamer's report says : " On the night of the i6th 
day of October, 1859, John Brown, together with sixteen white 
men and five negroes as conspirators, took armed possession of 



J .2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

the United States Armory at Harper's Ferry, in Virginia, killed 
four of the inhabitants, and were dislodged by armed force which 
they resisted, and in the action seven of the white conspirators 
were killed, and three of the negroes. John Brown was wounded 
and taken prisoner, and he, together with four others of the white 
conspirators and two of the negroes, were tried, convicted, and 
executed, and five escaped. 

" This took place in pursuance of a conspiracy commenced 
in Kansas by John Brown and most of these conspirators in the 
last part of 1857, or the beginning of 1858. They were young 
men and entirely under the influence of Brown, and had been, as 
well as Brown, deeply engaged in the conflicts in Kansas in 1855, 
1856, and 1857. 

" From Kansas they passed into Iowa, and from thence they 
were led by Brown to Chatham, in Canada, West. There they, 
with a number of negroes, formed a secret organization, with 
written articles of association, drawn up by Brown, having for its 
object the raising of slave insurrection in the slaveholding 
States, and subverting the Government thereof. 

" They had two hundred Sharp's carbines and two hundred 
revolver pistols and about one thousand pikes, together with a 
quantity of clothing and ammunition. The carbines and revol- 
vers had been procured by contributions in Massachusetts in 
1856, and forwarded to Iowa to be sent into Kansas for the aid 
and in the defense of the Free-State people in the struggle then 
existing there, and they had been intrusted to John Brown for 
that purpose, together with the ammunition. The clothing which 
had been contributed for the suffering people of Kansas, had 
been intrusted to him there for that purpose. 

" In 1857 these troubles in Kansas in a great degree sub- 
sided. The associations and committees, who had made contri- 
butions, ceased operations, and these arms and munitions in the 
hands of Brown came to be almost overlooked and disregarded 
until the summer of 1858, when a suggestion came to the persons 
having control of them, at Boston, that John Brown was about to 
make some improper use of them, and thereupon he was par- 
ticularly charged to make no use of them but in Kansas, and for 
the defense of the Free-State people there, the purpose for which 
they had been furnished. It seems that this, together with being 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^j 

unable to procure money, and an apprehension of being exposed, 
prevented him from executing the purpose of his conspiracy for 
that year. 

" In 1859, he procured to be completed in Connecticut one 
thousand pikes, for which he had contracted and partially paid 
in 1856 or 1857, for Hke service in Kansas, and then in 1859, he 
procured those pikes, and also those carbines and revolvers, and 
the ammunition and clothing, to be privately conveyed and 
secreted at or near Harper's Ferry, without the knowledge or 
consent of those who had contributed them for use in Kansas, 
and contrary to the order so given him by those in control." 

In Mr. Mason's report it is said : " The committee find, 
from the testimony, that this so-called invasion originated with 
a man named John Brown, who conducted it in person. It 
appears that Brown had been for some previous years involved in 
the late difficulties in the Territory of Kansas. He went there at 
an early day after the settlement of that Territory began, and 
either took with him or was joined by several sons, and, perhaps, 
sons-in-law, and as shown by the proofs, was extensively con- 
nected with many of the lawless military expeditions belonging 
to the history of those times. 

" It would appear from the testimony of more than one of 
the witnesses, that before leaving the Territory, he fully admitted 
that he had not gone there with any view of permanent settle- 
ment, but that, finding all the elements of strife and intestine war 
there in full operation, created by the division of sentiment 
between those constituting what were called the Free-State and 
Slave-State parties, his purpose was, by participating in it, to 
keep the public mind inflamed on the subject of slavery in the 
country, with a view to effect such organizations as might enable 
him to bring about servile insurrections in the Slave States. 

" To carry these plans into execution, it appears that, in the 
winter of 1857-58, he collected a number of young men in the 
Territory of Kansas, most of whom afterward appeared with him 
at Harper's Ferry, and placed them under military instruction 
at a place called Springdale, in the State of Iowa, their instructor 
being one of the party thus collected, and who, it was said, had 
some military training. 

" These men were maintained by Brown ; and in the spring 



j^^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

of 1858 he took them with him to the town of Chatham, in 
Canada, where he claimed to have summoned a convention for 
the purpose of organizing a provisional government, as pre- 
liminary to his descent upon some one of the Slave States. The 
proceedings of this convention, with the form of the provisional 
government adopted there, was taken amongst the papers found 
with Brown's effects after his capture, and were before the 
committee, and will be found in the appendix to this report. 

" As to the attack itself at Harper's Ferry, the committee 
find that Brown first appeared in that neighborhood early in 

July, 1859- 

" The whole number assembled with Brown at the time of 
the invasion were twenty-one men, making with himself in all 
twenty-two. On Sunday night, the i6th of October, 1859, be- 
tween II and 12 o'clock at night, Brown, attended by probably 
eighteen of his company, crossed the bridge connecting the 
village of Harper's Ferry with the Maryland shore, and, on 
reaching the Virginia side, proceeded immediately to take pos- 
session of the buildings of the Armory and Arsenal of the United 
States. These men were armed, each with a Sharp's carbine and 
with revolving pistols. The inhabitants of the village asleep, 
the presence of this party was not known until they appeared 
and demanded admittance at the gate leading to the public 
works, which was locked. The watchman in charge states that 
on his refusal to admit them, the gate was opened by violence 
and the party entered, made him prisoner, and established them- 
selves immediately in a strong brick building used as an engine- 
house with a room for the watchman adjoining it. They brought 
with them a wagon with one horse, containing arms and some 
prepared torches. 

" The invasion thus silently commenced, was as silently con- 
ducted, none of the inhabitants having been aroused. Armed 
parties were then stationed at corners of the streets. Their next 
movement was to take possession, by detached parties of three 
or four, of the Arsenal of the United States, where the public 
arms were chiefly deposited, a building not far from the engine- 
house ; and by another party, of the workshops and other build- 
ings of the Armory, about half a mile ofif, on the Shenandoah 
River, called ' Hall's Rifle Works.' 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^ 

" An armed party was sent into the adjoining country, with 
a view to the seizure of two or three of the principal inhabitants, 
with such of their slaves as might be found, and to bring them to 
Harper's Ferry (in the language of Brown) as hostages, Cook, 
who, had become well acquainted with the country around 
Harper's Ferry, acting as their guide. They thus seized Colonel 
Lewis W. Washington, with several of his slaves (negro men) 
at his residence, some five or six miles distant; and in like 
manner a gentleman named Allstadt, who lived near the road 
leading from Colonel Washington's to the Ferry, with five or 
six of his slaves (also negro men). A party was sent, taking 
Washington's wagon and horses, and five or six of the captured 
slaves, into Maryland to bring the arms deposited at Brown's 
house there to a point nearer the Ferry. On their way, they 
seized a gentleman named Byrne, who lived in Maryland, and 
whom they afterwards sent to the Ferry and placed amongst the 
other prisoners at the engine-house. It is shown that their 
design was to take, at the same time, as many of the slaves of 
Byrne as might be found, but in this they did not succeed. 

" When daylight came, as the inhabitants left their houses, 
consisting chiefly of workmen and others employed in the public 
works, on their way to their usual occupations, and unconscious 
of what had occurred during the night, they were seized in the 
streets by Brown's men and carried as prisoners to the engine- 
house until, with those previously there, they amounted to some 
thirty or forty in number. Pikes were put in the hands of such 
of the slaves as they had taken, and they were kept under the 
eyes of their captors as sentinels, near the buildings they 
occupied. But their movements being conducted at night, it was 
not until the morning was well advanced that the presence and 
character of the party was generally known in the village. 

" The nearest towns to Harper's Ferry were Charlestown, 
distant some ten miles, and Martinsburg, about twenty. As soon 
as information could reach those points, the citizens assembled, 
hurriedly enrolled themselves into military bands, and with such 
arms as they could find, proceeded to the Ferry. Before their 
arrival, however, it would seem that some four or five of the 
marauders, who were stationed at ' Hall's Rifle Works,' were 



146 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



driven out by the citizens of the village, and either killed or 
captured. 

" During the day it appears that all of Brown's party, who 
were not with him in the engine-house, were either killed or 
captured, except those who were on the Maryland side engaged 
in removing the arms, as before stated. Before, however, they 
were thus captured or destroyed, they shot and killed two per- 
sons, citizens of Virginia, in the streets. One of them, a man 
named Boerly, who lived in the village, was killed by a rifle shot 
near his own house. He had taken no part in any of the attacks, 
and does not appear even to have been armed. The other, Mr. 
George W. Turner, was a gentleman who lived in the country 
some ten miles distant, and who, it appears, had gone to the 
village upon information that his neighbor, Mr. Washington, had 
been seized in his house and carried off during the night. It 
would seem that, for his safety, he had taken a gun offered to 
him by some one in the village, and was proceeding along the 
street unattended, with it in his hand, when he also was killed by 
a rifle ball. 

" As soon as intelligence could be conveyed to Washington 
of the state of things at Harper's Ferry, the marines on duty at 
the Navy Yard were ordered to the scene of action, under the 
command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, of the army. 

" Colonel Lee, it will be seen, found it necessary to carry the 
engine-house by storm, the party within refusing to surrender 
except on terms properly held inadmissable. In this affair one 
marine was killed, and another slightly wounded. 

" There will be found in the Appendix,* a copy of the pro- 
ceedings of the convention held at Chatham, in Canada, before 
referred to, of the provisional form of government there pre- 
tended to have been instituted, the object of which clearly was 
to subvert the Government of one or more of the States, and of 
course to that extent the Government of the United States. The 
character of the military organization is shown by the commis- 
sions issued to certain of the armed party as captains, lieuten- 
ants, etc. 

" It clearly appears that the scheme of Brown was to take 

*Published with the report of Committee, and containing testimony of 
witnesses, and other papers that accompanied the report of the Committee. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASOI^. 



14? 



with him comparatively but few men, but those had been care- 
fully trained by military instruction previously, and were to act 
as officers. For his military force he relied, very clearly, on 
inciting insurrection amongst the slaves, who, he supposed, 
would flock to him as soon as it became known that he had 
entered the State and had been able to retain his position — an 
expectation to no extent realized, though it was owing alone to 
the loyalty and well-afifected disposition of the slaves that he did 
not succeed in inciting a servile war, with its necessary attend- 
ants of rapine and murder of all sexes, ages, and conditions. 
It is very certain from the proofs before the committee, that not 
one of the captured slaves, although arms were placed in their 
hands, attempted to use them ; but on the contrary, as soon as 
their safety would admit, in the absence of their captors, their 
arms were thrown away and they hastened back to their homes. 
" It is shown that Brown brought with him for this expedi- 
tion arms sufficient to have placed an effective weapon in the 
hands of no less than 1,500 men; besides which, had he suc- 
ceeded in obtaining the aid he looked to from the slaves, he had 
entirely under his control all the arms of the United States 
deposited in the Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. After his capture, 
besides the arms he brought in the wagon to the Ferry, there 
were found on the Maryland side, where he had left them, 200 
Sharp's rifled carbines, and 200 revolver pistols, packed in the 
boxes of the manufacturers, with 900 or 1,000 pikes, carefully 
and strongly made, the blade of steel being securely riveted to 
a handle about five feet in length ; many thousand percussion 
caps in boxes, and ample stores of fixed ammunition, besides a 
large supply of powder in kegs, and a chest that contained hospi- 
tal and other military stores, besides a quantity of extra clothing 
for troops." 

The Richmond Enquirer of October 30th, 1859, gives a letter 
from Mr. Mason to the editor of the Constitution which says : 

" It is right and due to truth that the material facts attend- 
ing the late incendiary attack on the town of Harper's Ferry 
should be correctly understood. There was no insurrection in any 
form whatsoever on the part of any of the inhabitants or residents 
of that town or its vicinity. There is little doubt that such in- 



148 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



surrection was expected by the leader of the armed miscreants 
who came from the adjoining States, and under cover of night, 
into the town, an expectation in which they were wofully dis- 
appointed, as fully admitted by themselves. The fact is un- 
doubted that not a man, black or white, joined them after they 
came into Virginia, or gave them aid or assistance in any form." 

It is certain that the only emotion evinced by the negroes 
was alarm and terror. Not a slave escaped or attempted to 
escape during the tumult ; of those carried by Cooke across 
the river, all escaped from him and returned home except one 
who was drowned whilst crossing the river homeward bound. 

Again Mr. Mason said in the Senate, a few months later : 
" I take pride in repeating that the State of Virginia was saved 
from insurrection among her slaves only by the loyalty of her 
slaves. That those fields do not now present a scene of incen- 
diarism and blood is owing only to the loyalty of the slaves upon 
the soil of Virginia." 

The following letter needs no explanation nor comment, 
further than to say Mr, Mason was connected, by marriage, with 
Mr. Dallas. They had always belonged to the same school of 
thought on all important questions of public interest, and their 
personal relations had been those of confidential friends. Mr, 
Dallas retained the position of United States Minister in Eng- 
land until the inauguration of President Lincoln, when he re- 
turned to his home in Philadelphia. All communication with 
Mr. Mason then ended, and was never renewed : 

" Selma, near Winchester, Va., Nov. 2d, 1858. 

" The Honorable James Buchanan, 

" President of the United States. 

"Dear Sir: On Thursday of last week Mr. Faulkner 
called on me at my residence, and said, in course of conversa- 
tion, that he had been for a day or two previously in Washing- 
ton, that whilst there (in a conversation with you which admitted 
of it), he mentioned my name to you in connection with the 
mission in London, upon the hypothesis assumed in the conver- 
sation, that Mr. Dallas was to be recalled. 

" Mr. Faulkner further said, that after expressing a doubt 
on your part, whether the mission would be acceptable to me 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^g 

(which he was unable to solve), he was authorized by you to 
communicate to me what had passed, and to which you were 
good enough to add, that if acceptable it would be offered to me. 

" I replied to Mr. Faulkner that I had not thought of going 
abroad, and thus had never considered the subject connected 
with such a change of position — but that in reference to the 
mission in question, my relations to Mr. Dallas were such, that 
I could consider no proposition affecting myself which looked to 
his being superseded — and requested Mr. Faulkner, if he thought 
it proper to communicate the result of our interview to you, that 
such should be given as my reply. 

" To preclude any possible misconstruction, and whilst 
thanking you for the consideration which led you to acquiesce 
in Mr. Faulkner's suggestion of my name, I wish to supply in 
this form, to what Mr. Faulkner may write to you, that as well 
because of my relations to Mr. Dallas, as a belief in his pecul- 
iar fitness for that important post, I could, under no circumstances, 
consent to become his successor. 

" That this note may not reach you in a promiscuous mail, 
I shall ask my friend Mr. Dickens (Secretary of the Senate), to 
hand it to you, though he is of course ignorant of its contents. 

" With great respect, 

" I am, sir, very cordially and truly yours, 

" T- M. MASON." 



150 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Disintegration of Democratic Party in i860 — Extract from Speech Made in 
Senate — Mr. Seward's Speech in Boston — Letter to Richmond ^«^«z>^r — 
Conference of States Proposed by Virginia — Extracts from President 
Buchanan's Message and from Mr. Sickles' Speech — Mr. Mason's Re- 
marks on Mr. Powell's Resolutions — Remarks on Withdrawal of Six 
Senators — Letter to His Daughter — Letter to the People of Virginia — 
Remarks on Peace Conference — Letters from Senators Chandler and 
Bingham — Petitions to Congress from the People of Northern States — 
Remarks on Resolution to Expel Senator Wigfall, of Texas. 

It is difficult to appreciate rightly, at this day, the excitement 
existing in all parts of the country during the years 1859 and 
i860. An excitement steadily increasing with the nearer 
approach of the Presidential election. 

There were very few who failed to recognize the peculiar 
importance of this election in its effect upon the South — but 
there were differences of opinion regarding the measures best 
adopted to secure her safety. There was, without exception 
entire loyalty to the Union under the Constitution; and there were 
many who clung to the hope of preserving it (the Union), by 
means of further compromise. There were others who believed 
that the honor as well as the interests of the Southern States 
forbade compromise, and required firm resistance to the policy 
adopted by the Abolitionists, and who saw that the ascendency 
to power of this sectional party involved the virtual subjugation 
of the South. 

Mr. Davis has given, in the " Rise and Fall of the Con- 
federate Government," a very clear and concise account of the 
four conventions held in the spring of i860. It is here quoted 
as being authentic history, coming, as it does, from the pen of 
one who was, necessarily, fully informed of each event as it 
occurred. The division made in the Democratic party is thus 
explained : 

" On April 23d, i860, the Democratic party held a conven- 
tion in Charleston, South Carolina, for the purpose of nominat- 
ing a candidate for the Presidency. It was composed as usual of 
delegates from all the States ; but an unfortunate disagreement 
with regard to the declaration of principles to be set forth 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^j 

rendered a nomination impracticable. Both divisions of the 
convention adjourned, and met again in Baltimore in June. 
Then, having finally failed to come to an agreement, they 
separated and made their nominations apart. Mr. Douglas, of 
Illinois, was nominated by the friends of the ' popular sover- 
eignty,' with Mr. Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, for Vice- 
President. 

" The convention representing the conservative, or State- 
Rights wing of the Democratic party, unanimously made choice, 
on the first ballot, of John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, for 
President, and General Joseph Lane, of Oregon, Vice-President. 
The resolutions of each of these two conventions denounced the 
action and policy of the Abolition party, as subversive of the 
Constitution, and revolutionary in their tendency. 

" Another Convention was held in Baltimore about the same 
period by those who still adhered to the old Whig party, rein- 
forced by the remains of the ' American ' organization, and per- 
haps some others. This Convention also consisted of delegates 
from all the States, and, repudiating all geographical and sec- 
tional issues, and declaring it to be ' both the part of patriotism 
and of duty to recognize no political principle other than the 
Constitution of the country, the Union of the States, and the 
enforcement of the laws, pledged itself and its supporters ' to 
maintain, protect, and defend, separately and unitedly, those 
great principles of public liberty and national safety against all 
enemies at home and abroad.' 

" Its nominees were Messrs. John Bell, of Tennessee, and 
Edward Everett, of Massachusetts. 

" The Republican party had held its convention on May 
i6th, in Chicago. It was a purely sectional body. There were 
a few delegates present representing insignificant minorities in 
the border States, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and 
Missouri; but not one from any State south of the celebrated 
line of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. It had been the in- 
variable usage with nominating conventions of all parties to 
select candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, one 
from the North and the other from the South, but this assembly 
nominated Mr. Lincoln, of Illinois, for the first office, and for 
the second, Mr. Hamlin, of Maine, — both Northerners." 



jr2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

Two days after this convention met, viz., on the i8th of May, 
Mr. Mason took quite an active part in a debate in the Senate upon 
the resolutions submitted, a short time before, by Mr. Davis, oi 
Mississippi, affirming the equality of the States, the right of the 
citizens of each State to remove to the Territories with their 
property, and denying the right of Congress or a Territorial 
Legislature to discriminate either in relation to persons or prop- 
erty in the Territories, and asserting the duty of affording pro- 
tection when experience shall prove that the judicial and ex- 
ecutive authority do not possess means to insure adequate pro- 
tection to constitutional rights in a Territory. Brief extracts 
from what he (Mr. Mason) then said may be interesting in this 
connection and may serve to give the student of history fuller 
information in regard to the questions then agitating the country. 

Mr. Mason said : " Mr. President, I have not felt at liberty 
to refrain from expressing the opinions which control my judg- 
ment on the resolutions before the Senate, because they involve 
questions not only deeply interesting, but, as I consider, of vital 
importance to my State, and to the section from which I come. 

" They involve the relations that subsist under the Consti- 
tution, between the Territories of the United States and the 
States themselves ; questions not merely of abstract interest, but 
questions necessary to be settled in order to define and ascertain 
those rights, and bring them into practical fruition. The hon- 
orable Senator from Illinois (Mr. Douglas), to whom I listened 
with great interest and respect during the last two days of the 
session, has presented his views, not only elaborately, but with 
great strength and power, upon this very question of the 
relations between the Territories and the States. Views from 
which I differ totally — views which, if correct and carried into 
effect, must rend asunder existing party alliances and bring the 
Southern States to separate organization. They involve, of 
necessity, a discussion upon, a minute inquiry into, and a 
thorough understanding of, the relations which the occupants 
of a Territory bear to the States of the Union ; because a Ter- 
ritory, I believe all admit, is a common property, belonging just 
as much to one State as to any other; in which all have equal 
rights, and in which the Constitution requires that the rights 
of all shall be equally respected. Nor is it abstract, because the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j c ■, 



very question has arisen before the country, and is now depend- 
ing in the legislation upon your table. 

"A doctrine has grown up, or rather has assumed shape 
and character, ascribing to the people in a Territory some 
inherent power in them as a political community, independent 
of Congress and the Government of the United States — sov- 
ereignty ; what has been termed by one of the ablest vindicators 
of this doctrine, the honorable Senator from Illinois, in a very 
elaborate thesis that he wrote upon this subject after the decision 
of the Supreme Court, " Popular Sovereignty in the Territories." 
That is the designation he has given to it in his pamphlet, which 
I have here, reprinted from Harper's Magazine. Why, sir, it is a 
solecism in mind, if not in language? What is sovereignty? 
Everybody understands that who has advanced beyond the 
horn-book of the publicists. There is no difificulty in defining 
it and comprehending it. Sovereignty is supreme power, let it 
be lodged where it may, suprema lex. The will of the sovereign is 
the law of the subject. Where does it exist in our country? 
In the Government of the United States? No. No man who 
respects his judgment, either as a jurist or a statesman, will 
affirm it. It is here in the country beyond all question. It 
does not reside in the Federal Government. It does not reside 
in the people of the United States ; but yet it is here potent, and 
its voice is felt every day in the government of the country. Sov- 
ereignty in this country resides in the people of the several 
States as separate and distinct political communities, nowhere 
else. The sovereignty of my honored State of Virginia is pure 
and simple, as is that of the contiguous State of Kentucky ; but 
the sovereignty of Virginia is one thing, and the sovereignty of 
Kentucky is another thing, entirely distinct. The Government 
formed by the Constitution of the United States is the act of 
these sovereigns acting separately, each for itself, entering into 
a common government by compact ; and thus it has been said, 
and well said, by honorable Senators who have preceded me, 
the honorable Senator from Texas (Mr. Wigfall), and the hon- 
orable Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Davis), that the Govern- 
ment of the United States is nothing but the agency of the States. 
It is through the Government of the United States that these 
sovereigns speak their will. The law of the Constitution has 



j^. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

no binding obligation on earth upon any citizen of this country ; 
but as it is the will of the separate sovereigns, to whom those 
citizens are subject. The Government then is but an agency, it 
has no sovereign power whatever. When it passes a law, that 
law is supreme, there is no doubt about that, every act of the Fed- 
eral Government is a supreme act; and why? Because the sov- 
ereigns who created the agency made it so, and for no other 
reason. The Constitution on its face declares that laws made 
pursuant to the Constitution shall be the supreme law of the 
land. The will promulgated through the law is not that of the 
Government ; it is the will of those who made the Government ; 
the sovereign States. 

" My earnest anxiety is, that the Government which has 
been transmitted to us by our fathers shall be preserved. I am 
attached to it, as you all are, doubtless, not only because it 
came as an inheritance from an honored line of ancestors, but 
because of its intrinsic merit, its excellence in itself. It seems 
almost to have been the work of an inspiration of the day. 
You might bring any body of men together now, I care not 
who, endowed with every moral and intellectual faculty, with 
the highest obligations of honor, loyalty, and patriotism upon 
them, and obliterate the Constitution from your Statute books, 
and they never could replace it, never. 

" Mr. President, the Union can be preserved, and it is the 
duty of all good men to do it, — a duty, not of patriotism 
alone, but of probity. I declare to-day — the judgment of Sena- 
tors will confirm it — this Union once dissolved, it is gone forever ; 
alliance between these States is gone forever ; there is no human 
power that can restore it. What is to destroy it? I say it with 
entire respect to all around me, there is nothing that can destroy 
it, if it is administered by the functionaries of the Government, 
loyally, honestly, and honorably; in other words, if they and 
their constituents will keep the bargain which their fathers 
made." 

An extract from a speech made by Mr. Seward, the acknowl- 
edged leader of his party, gives information regarding the pur- 
poses of the Republican party. The speech was made in Boston 
on August 27th, i860, and the extract is copied from the 
Richmond Enquirer of September nth, of the same year. Mr. 
Seward then said : 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



155 



" What a comment upon the wisdom of a man is given in 
this single fact, that fifteen years only after the death of John 
Quincy Adams, the people who hurled him from power and 
from place, are calling to the head of the nation, to the very 
seat from which he was expelled, AbraTiam Lincoln (enthusiastic 
applause), whose claim to that seat is that he confesses the obli- 
gation of that higher law (applause) which the sage of Quincy 
proclaimed, that he avows himself for weal or woe, for life or 
death, a soldier on the side of freedom in the irrepressible con- 
flict between freedom and slavery (prolonged applause). This, 
gentlemen, is my simple confession. I desire, now, only to say 
that you have arrived at the last stage of this conflict, before you 
reach the triumph which is to inaugurate this great policy into 
the Government of the United States. But let not your thoughts 
and expectations be confined to the present hour. I tell you, 
fellow-citizens, that with this victory comes the end of the power 
of slavery in the United States." 

The " victory " here anticipated came within the next three 
months, when Lincoln was elected President ; and when it was 
known that Mr. Seward's influence and policy would prevail 
in the next administration. 

Mr. Mason's opinions regarding the existing conditions of 
the country are expressed in two letters written soon after the 
election : 

" Selma, Frederick County, Va., 
" November 23d, i860. 
"Nathaniel Tyler, Esq., Editor of The Richmond Enquirer: 

"Dear Sir: — I received by the last mail only your letter 
of the 15th inst., and at once reply. 

" You ask for my opinions on the condition of the country, 
and more especially in regard to the expediency of the call of a 
convention of the people of Virginia, to consider what it may 
become us to do, in the crisis which is upon us, and with a view 
to their publication. 

" Whilst disinclined at all times to volunteer my opinions, 
I have not the slightest indisposition to express them, when 
they are asked. Should you think them worthy of publication, 
the act is yours. 



156 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" I have observed with great satisfaction, that the Governor 
has called the Legislature to meet at an early day, and, deeply 
impressed with the disordered condition of the country, from 
causes far beyond the reach of legislation, have taken it for 
granted their first act will be to order elections for a general 
convention of the State. 

" The questions now forced upon the country are vital in 
their solution to the peace, the honor, and the safety of the 
Southern States. Virginia, whether in territory, in population, 
or in position, certainly takes no inferior rank in the South ; 
and it is of the last importance to her, as it is to them, that the 
matured sense of her people should be expressed in deliberation 
on these grave questions ; and, if necessary, carried into exe- 
cution, in the solemn forms of her sovereign authority. 

" All that has happened, and much that is yet to come, was 
foreseen and predicted by those not claiming to be wise beyond 
their generation, as the legitimate and inevitable fruits of the 
ascendency of the Abolition party in the North. How could it 
be otherwise? The election just over has established in the 
seats of Federal authority, and by overwhelming majorities in 
the non-slaveholding States, a great political power, whose 
open and avowed mission is to break up and destroy interests in 
property and in society in all the slaveholding States, which, 
when effected, must reduce their lands to deserts, and throw 
their people as outcasts upon the world. The public voice 
ordaining this atrocious wrong comes from a people who have 
no part or lot in the great interest so recklessly assailed, for 
it will stand as a recorded fact that not a single electoral vote 
will be cast in support of this power in any State where this inter- 
est pertains. 

" Who does not see and feel, then, that when the States of 
the South are subjected to this dominion they will be brought, 
against their will, under a government to which they are not 
parties, and over which they hold not the slightest check? This 
is not the form of government which our ancestors gave us, nor 
is it a government which our people will endure. The people 
of the North, in thus acting, have separated themselves from the 
people of the South, and the government they thus inaugurate 
will be to us the government of a foreign power. We shall 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



^57 



stand to such power as Italy to Austria, and Poland to Russia. 
It will be one people governed by another people. Who can 
wonder, then, at the startling events which have crowded before 
us since the Anti-Federal act of this Northern election? 

" What was seen yesterday but in dim distance is the 
reality of to-day. And that which is looked to but as a proba- 
bility to-day becomes the stern fact of to-morrow. Our people 
at the South are intelligent, brave and sensitive. When a hos- 
tile army is raised against them, they do not wait for the blow, 
but rush at once to disable the adversary. And this is what they 
are now doing. 

" Let us review the events, and then we may the better 
understand what may devolve on Virginia, in the political exi- 
gencies of the times. 

" The election of the President is made, and nothing remains 
but formally to cast, and then to count, the electoral vote. 
There are those who believe, and I am one of them, that no 
safety remains to the Southern States and their people but such 
as shall be vindicated by a stern purpose of self-protection. The 
event that fixes this belief is not the election of the man ; it is 
the accession of the power of which he is the minister. They 
determine the political intentions of that power, not by its party 
platform (gross and insulting though it be), nor by the threats 
and taunts of its insolent lieutenants, or its demoralized press. 
They determine it by the spirit of the Northern mind, evinced 
by an obstinate tenacity of purpose, through every vicissitude 
of political fortune. By the Statutes of the Northern States, 
passed as well in violation of all honorable faith as of the highest 
constitutional obligation, paralyzing the laws of Congress, made 
in pursuance of the Constitution, to protect the property of the 
Southern people. By the encouragement given at the North 
to conspiracies and conspirators within their borders, against 
the' lives and the property of the people of the South, and their 
refusal or failure to pass laws for the punishment of such ofifend- 
ers, or the prevention of the like in future. By the open recom- 
mendation of their Senators and Representatives of publications 
issued at the North, for circulation at the South, designed by false 
and calumnious charges to foment divisions amongst our people, 
and to excite the servile class to insurrection and rapine. By 



138 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



the sanction given to such inhuman and cruel conduct by con- 
stituents at the North, in returning such representatives back 
to the Federal councils. And, if more were wanting, by that 
fixed and settled policy, made the corner-stone of the incoming 
administration (to which there is no party exception at the 
North), which refuses to the people at the South a common 
right with the people at the North in the common Territories 
of the Confederacy. 

" Such are some of the reasons which, I believe, have satis- 
fied those of whom I speak, which have certainly convinced me, 
that the Southern people must now look to their own State 
authorities, and to them only, for their safety in the future. 
Whether in the form of other and higher securities in the present 
Confederacy, or in a new Confederacy, the injured States must 
determine in convention. 

" Indeed, in the progress of events so far, the field of delib- 
eration may be narrowed. One State has already made her 
election to abandon the Confederation. I think, as to South 
Carolina, we may safely assume that as a fact, with which 
the future has nothing more to do than to establish it in history. 
As to three other States, and most probably four, there is every 
reason to believe they are prepared also to secede as soon as the 
acts of separation can be reduced to form. What may be the 
sense of other States in this great crisis (for great it certainly 
is), as to the proper measures to be adopted for their own safety, 
I will not venture to anticipate. But the secession of one State 
is a disruption of the Union. 

" Whether in the opinion of other States she has determined 
wisely or unwisely, the State is to be the arbiter of her own act ; 
her destiny is in her own keeping ; under submission alone to the 
Supreme Ruler of the universe. To reason otherwise, is to treat 
a State of the Confederacy, not as one of the Confederates, but 
as an integral part of a consolidated Empire. Fortunately for the 
occasion and its consequences, this is not an open question in 
Virginia, Our honored State has ever maintained that our 
Federal system was a confederation of sovereign powers, not a 
consolidation of States into one people, and, as a consequence, 
whenever a State considered the compact broken, and in a man- 
ner to endanger her safety, such State stood remitted, as in sov- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



159 



ereign right, to determine for herself, and under no respon- 
sibiHty, save to the opinion of the civiHzed world, both the mode 
and measure of redress. 

" The disruption of the Federal Union, thus imminent, or, 
I should say, actual, is a great event ; and in considering, 
therefore, how it may become the Convention of Virginia to 
act, we must look to that event as a material, if not controlling, 
element in its deliberations. In the first place, it may, and most 
probably will, force upon the Federal Government the settlement 
between it and the several States, of the question of the right 
of secession. If that right is denied, a new and paramount 
issue will be made between the States and Federal power, which 
will be presented by the Virginia Convention in limine. 

" One thing is very clear : Virginia will not be passive (nor 
will any other Southern State), should any attempt be made, by 
force, to reduce such seceding State or States to subjection. 

" In the next place, it is to my mind equally clear, should 
one of the States separate from the Union on this slavery ques- 
tion, the disruption will necessarily carry with it the like sepa- 
ration of all those slave-holding States whose destiny it is to con- 
tinue such ; unless under a returning sense of right and justice 
in the Northern mind, all may remain, on such securities for the 
future as will establish this great social interest in the exclusive 
charge of those to whom it pertains. 

" I have ventured thus, though with unfeigned dififidence, 
to look forward to what Virginia may be called on to consider 
and determine, in regard to the great issues forced upon her 
counsels by events in progress. The magnitude of the occasion 
may be well estimated by the magnitude of those events. State 
follows State into convention, to deliberate on the necessity of 
breaking up a Government which they believe has levied war 
against the essential interests and dearest rights of their people. 
The Southern States, happen what may, have never been the 
aggressors in this strange, unnatural contest. 

" In what they have done, or what may yet remain forthem 
to do, they are prepared to meet all the consequences. There 
can be no doubt or hesitancy, therefore, in my mind, as to the 
course of Virginia. A convention is the only authority com- 



j^Q LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



petent to the occasion, and it should be assembled at the earliest 
day practicable. 

" In conclusion, I will only add, that the crisis which for 
unborn posterity will fix the destiny of the South, is upon us, 
and must be fearlessly met; certainly with calm and prudent 
discretion, and all sobriety of judgment ; but with an obdurate 
purpose to establish the just rights of our people, and to yield 
nothing that pertains to Virginia, as a free and sovereign State, 
" Very respectfully yours, 

"J. M. MASON." 

This letter to his sister-in-law is interesting. It is, how- 
ever, evident that it was written without any thought of publi- 
cation : 

" Selma, November 29, i860. 

" Dear Sister Anne: Ida's hand is just now in, from 
writing for me more than one political letter this evening ; and as 
you seem to want one, you shall be indulged. As the hour is 
late, however, I can give you little more than my conclusions; 
for the reasons, 1 refer you to the two printed papers enclosed, 
signed ' Henry,' being my latest communications to the Richmond 
papers. 

" First, then, the dissolution of the Union is a fixed fact. 
As certain as the sun rises, South Carolina goes out as soon as 
the Act of Separation can be reduced to form, after the 17th of 
December, when the convention meets — and she is right. The 
incidental meeting of her Legislature on the sixth of this month, 
to elect Electors, alone gave her the initiative. I have no 
doubt her example will be followed by State after State as fast 
as they can assemble in convention, and by Virginia with like 
speed. 

"The people at the North really seem to be blind and deaf 
to the exigency which is upon us, and them. The secession 
of one State for all purposes of dissolution, is as effectual as the 
secession of a dozen, because it breaks the Union, and involves 
all the issues incidental to a dissolution. 

" There are those in the South who think (and I am one 
of them) that we have no choice but to accept the ' irrepressible 
conflict ' tendered us by the late election. It is a social war, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^i 

declared by the North, a war by one form of society against 
another distinct form of society. Whether it be conducted in 
arms, the North, which tenders the issue, will decide. Of one 
thing be certain : there will be an undivided South; in a social war 
they will realize, and must have, a common destiny. 

" Show this to Sam, apd tell him he may show it to any 
he may think it will interest. I go to Washington on Saturday. 
Mrs. Mason will doubtless answer your letter to her in good 
time — ad interim. I send this as a sedative, and hope you will 
have a good nap upon it. With us, hereabouts, we have passed 
the period of excitement and are in the chronic stage, which you 
know carries with it repose. But in war or peace, I am, my 
dear sister Anne, 

" Most affectionately your brother, 

"J. M. MASON." 

Conventions were in session in several of the Southern 
States before the meeting of Congress on December 3d. All 
the States were, however, there represented, as usual, except 
South Carolina, whose Senators had tendered their resignation 
to the Governor immediately after the election of President Lin- 
coln. The people throughout the country were in a state of 
anxious suspense, and in the South, all former distinctions of 
party were lost in the one vital issue then presented. 

A special session of the Virginia Legislature was called 
early in December, and the first act of that Legislature was to 
summon the people of the State to meet in convention on Feb- 
ruary 13th. In the meantime, viz., on January 19th, the last 
great effort was made by Virginia to avert the war that all now 
saw was almost inevitable. Her Legislature on that day 
adopted a preamble and resolutions deprecating disunion, and 
inviting all such States as were willing to unite in an earnest 
endeavor to avert it by an adjustment of the then existing contro- 
versies, to appoint commissioners to meet in Washington on 
February 4th to consider and, if possible, agree upon some 
suitable adjustment. Five of the most distinguished citizens of 
the State were appointed to represent her in the proposed con- 
ference. Ex-President Tyler was sent to Washington to convey 
to the President of the United States official information regard- 



J (52 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

ing this action of Virginia, and to ask the forbearance of the 
Federal Government, At the same time a commissioner was 
sent to all the other Southern States to carry Virginia's propo- 
sition to them. It was promptly acceded to by the " Border 
States " in general, and others followed, so that twenty-one 
States were eventually represented in the " Peace Congress " 
which met in Washington ; fourteen of these were Northern, or 
" non-slaveholding," and seven were slaveholding States. 

Extracts from the Congressimial Globe will here furnish an 
outline of the history of the events that crowded so closely 
together during that one short session of Congress. Quotations 
from the President's message and from a speech made in the 
House of Representatives by Mr. Sickles, of New York, give the 
testimony of two Northern men regarding the existing condition 
of public afifairs and the cause of the secession of the Southern 
States. Extracts from the occasional speeches made by Mr. 
Mason in the Senate define the position he held and the counsels 
he gave regarding the political problems of that day. 

Extract from President Buchanan's message, December 3d, 
i860: 

" Why is it, then, that discontent so extensively prevails, and 
the Union of the States, which is the source of all these blessings, 
is threatened with destruction? The long continued and intem- 
perate interference of the Northern people with the question of 
slavery in the Southern States has at length produced its natural 
efifects. The different sections of the Union are now arrayed 
against each other, and the time has arrived, so much dreaded by 
the father of his country, when hostile geographical parties have 
been formed. I have long foreseen and often warned my country- 
men of the now impending danger. This does not proceed solely 
from the claim on the part of Congress or the Territorial Legis- 
latures to exclude slavery from the Territories, or from the 
efforts of different States to prevent the execution of the fugitive 
slave law. All or any of these evils might have been endured by 
the South without danger to the Union — as others have been — 
in the hope that time and reflection might apply the remedy. 
The immediate peril arises, not so much from these causes, as 
from the fact that the incessant and violent agitation of the slave 
question throughout the North for the last quarter of a century 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^j 

has, at last, produced its malign influence on the slaves, and 
inspired them with vague notions of freedom. Hence a sense of 
security no longer exists around the family altar. The feeling of 
peace at home has given place to apprehensions of servile insur- 
rection.* Many a matron throughout the South retires at night 
in dread of what may befall herself and her children before the 
morning. Should this apprehension of domestic danger, whether 
real or imaginary, extend and intensify itself until it shall pervade 
the masses of the Southern people, then disunion is inevitable. 
Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and has been im- 
planted in the heart of man by his Creator for the wisest purpose ; 
and no political union, however fraught with blessings and 
benefits in all other respects, can long continue, if the necessary 
consequence be to render the homes and firesides of nearly half 
the parties to it habitually and hopelessly insecure. Sooner or 
later the bonds of such a union must be severed. 

" It is my conviction that this fatal period has not yet 
arrived, and my prayer to God is that he would preserve the 
Constitution and the Union throughout all generations. 

" But let us take warning in time, and remove the cause of 
danger. It can not be denied that for five and twenty years the 
agitation at the North against slavery at the South has been 
incessant. In 1835 pictorial handbills and inflammatory appeals 
were circulated extensively throughout the South, of a character 
to excite the passions of the slaves; and, in the language of 
General Jackson, ' to stimulate them to insurrection and produce 
all the horrors of civil war.' This agitation has ever since been 
continued by the public press, by the proceedings of State and 
county conventions, and by abolition sermons and lectures. The 
time of Congress has been occupied in violent speeches on this 
never-ending subject; and appeals in pamphlet and other forms, 
indorsed by distinguished names, have been sent forth from this 
central point, and spread broadcast over the Union. 

" How easy would it be for the American people to settle the 
slavery question forever, and to restore peace and harmony to 
this distracted land. They, and they alone, can do it. All that 

*The truth of history requires that it should be said here that no fear 
of the negroes was felt in the South, either before or during the war; and 
no case was known in which they did harm to the women and children who 
were left, in many instances, entirely dependent upon their servants. 



164 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



is necessary to accomplish the object, and all for which the Slave 
States have ever contended, is to be let alone, and permitted to 
manage their domestic institutions their own way. As sovereign 
States they, and they alone, are responsible before God and the 
world for the slavery existing among them. For this, the people 
of the North are no more responsible, and have no more right to 
interfere, than with similar institutions in Russia or in Brazil. 

" It may be asked, then, are the people of the States with- 
out redress against the tyranny and oppression of the Federal 
Government? By no means. The right of resistance on the part 
of the governed against the oppression of their Governments 
can not be denied. It exists independently of all constitutions, 
and has been exercised at all periods of the world's history. It 
is embodied in strong and express language in our own Declara- 
tion of Independence. 

" Secession is neither more nor less than revolution. It may 
or it may not be a justifiable revolution, but still it is revolution. 
Has the Constitution delegated to Congress the power to coerce 
a State into submission which is attempting to withdraw or has 
actually withdrawn from the Confederacy? If answered in the 
affirmative, it must be on the principle that the power has been 
conferred upon Congress to declare and make war against a 
State. 

" After much serious reflection, I have arrived at the con- 
clusion that no such power has been delegated to Congress or 
to any other department of the Federal Government. It is mani- 
fest, upon an inspection of the Constitution, that this is not 
among the specific and enumerated powers granted to Congress ; 
and it is equally apparent that its exercise is not ' necessary and 
proper for carrying into execution ' any one of these powers. So 
far from this power having been delegated to Congress, it was 
expressly refused by the Convention which framed the Consti- 
tution. 

" Without descending to particulars, it may be safely 
asserted, that the power to make war against a State is at vari- 
ance with the whole spirit and intent of the Constitution. Sup- 
pose such a war should result in the conquest of a State, how 
are we to govern it afterwards? " 

Of similar import is this extract from a speech made in the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



165 



House of Representatives, December loth, i860, by Mr. Sickles, 
of New York : 

" Mr. Speaker, one of the great dangers of the day is that 
the country has not understood, does not understand, the extent 
of the peril in which she is placed. Illusions have usurped the 
place of reason in the popular mind. The country has been 
fatally deceived, and some of these delusions possess us even 
now. One of them is, that this Union can be preserved by force. 
I, for one, have never for a moment entertained such a thought. 
It is not the opinion of the people whom I represent ; and I must 
say to you, in all solemnity, that while the City of New York will 
cling to the Union to the last, yet when the call for force comes — 
let it come whence it may — no man will ever pass the boundaries 
of the City of New York for the purpose of waging war against 
any State of this Union, which, through its constituted author- 
ities, and sustained by the voice of its people, solemnly declares 
that its rights, its interests, and its honor demand that it should 
seek safety in a separate existence. 

" What is the real cause of our present trouble? It is a dis- 
regard of the obligations of our Constitution. Obey this Con- 
stitution that we have, follow it, cherish it, cleave to it as an 
article of faith, and you will have peace again. If that had been 
done always this crisis would never have come upon us. Again 
I say that one of the great evils of the times is the obdurate 
refusal to recognize the binding force of the constitutional pro- 
visions. The people have been taught this by reckless leaders 
now in power in most of the States, and soon to claim the power 
of the Federal Government ; and, I repeat, that it is upon them 
that the responsibility rests in this emergency. They have 
striven, in speeches and essays elaborately prepared by the mid- 
night lamp, to alienate the North and the South. These insidious 
appeals are often written or revised by those who believe that 
private opinion is superior to constitutional obligations — the 
higher law put forth here and sent from this Capital in untold 
millions, to undermine the foundations of fraternal good faith. 
Thus, sir, by teaching untruth to the people, they have been 
made to believe that their consciences were not bound by the 
Constitution or the law of the land. In the name of heaven, how 
idle it is to talk, in the face of such public opinion, of amending a 



j^^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Constitution, when none of those who follow the leaders I refer 
to care whether it is obeyed or not. What a mockery it would 
be to go before the Legislature of a State which has a personal 
liberty bill on its statute books, and ask them for an amendment 
to the Constitution. When men will keep such laws in force 
after they have taken a solemn oath, before High Heaven, to 
support the Constitution, could you believe any pledge they can 
make? The work must begin deeper than that. The same 
teachers who have led the minds of the people to this unbelief, 
the same teachers who have enticed the people up to the work of 
demolishing the existing Constitution, must again revive in their 
hearts the conscience that will preserve and obey a Constitution. 
Mr. Speaker, why may not the President-elect speak to the 
nation, and especially to his supporters in the aggressive States? 
He is secure in his election. The electoral colleges have met. 
There is no fear now as was suggested some time ago, that he 
might lose his ofifice by opening his lips. I believe that among 
the chief causes which have produced the present state of aflfairs, 
has been the desire for power on the part of a new party, and the 
belief that they could most successfully obtain it by an appeal to 
the prejudices of the North against slavery. It is power that 
they want. It is power that they have secured. It is power that 
they wish to keep. Patriotism will sway many of Mr. Lincoln's 
supporters ; but the thirst for power will control more. Now, to 
illustrate what I think with reference to the controlling motives 
which are producing this state of things, I believe that if Mr. 
Lincoln would cause it to be made known to all the applicants 
for office under his administration, that he will not entertain the 
application of any man who is in favor of the so-called personal 
liberty bills, or opposed to the faithful execution of the Fugitive 
Slave Law — if he will do that, plainly and in good faith, through 
his representative men, you will not hear the word ' slavery ' for 
the next four years from the Republican party North, East, or 
West." 

On December loth, i860, Mr. Powell (Kentucky), offered 
the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That so much of the President's message as re- 
ferred to the agitated and distracted state of the country, and the 
grievances between the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



i6j 



be referred to a special committee of thirteen members, and that 
said committee be instructed to inquire into the present condition 
of the country, and report by bill or otherwise." 

In reference to this resolution, Mr. Mason said : " I am not 
at liberty to vote against it, and I trouble the Senate with a very 
few remarks only lest my vote in favor of it should be miscon- 
strued elsewhere. There is a possibility that a vote in the 
affirmative may in some parts of the country, in the popular 
judgment, ascribe to the Senator so voting an idea that there is 
to be found in Congress any remedy for the present condition 
of the country. Sir, in my own State I know that the people are 
not looking to Congress for any legislation competent even to 
mitigate or palliate, far less to prevent those dangers. My State 
and a great many others of this Confederacy are going into con- 
vention with a view to take up the subject for themselves, and as 
separate, sovereign communities, to determine what is best for 
their safety. I know that the public mind in Virginia is in no 
sense, in no manner, directed to Congress with any idea that it 
is competent to them to afford relief. The States are taking the 
subject into their own hands. I should regret extremely if the 
passage of this resolution should lead the citizens of other States, 
the non-slaveholding States, to look to Congress for any hope 
of an adjustment of these differences. It would mislead them, 
I should certainly hope that those States North and East and 
West would do as we are doing in the South, resolve themselves 
into their separate political communities and there determine 
whether anything and what can be done to save the Union. If 
they look to us with any such hope, they are misled, in my 
opinion. I should regret extremely, therefore, if an affirmative 
vote on my part, which will be given for the resolution more from 
what is due to parliamentary form than from any other reason, 
should lead them in any quarter to expect that it is competent 
to us, that we have the power to avert the perils that are im- 
pending. I should expect much from the Northern and Eastern 
States, if they were to go into State convention, look at the evil 
as it exists, and apply a remedy if it be within their power. What 
is the evil? Gentlemen have well said, it is not the failure to 
execute the Fugitive Slave Law; it is not the passage of these 
liberty bills, as they are called, in the various States ; it is a social 



j^g LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



war — so far not a war of arms — a war of sentiment, of opinion ; 
a war by one form of society against another form of society. 

" I possibly may have a misinformed judgment, but I rely 
upon it until corrected; and my judgment is satisfied that, for 
some reason the population in the States having no slaves, feel- 
ing their great numerical majority, and having nursed this senti- 
ment, this mere opinion about social forms existing elsewhere, 
have, in some manner, unfortunately, brought themselves to a 
determination to extinguish it. I do not mean by any immediate 
blow, by any present law ; but it is their purpose, having obtained 
possession of the Federal power, to use that power in every 
form to bring that social condition to a close. If the people 
would go into convention in all those States, as we are driven 
into convention, take up the subject, probe it, analyze it, look 
back to history and see what it is, they would have it in their 
power to apply a remedy. The remedy rests in their hands, not 
in Congress. I fear, too, sir; that in what fell from the honor- 
able Senator from New York, we are admonished of the sort of 
legislation that is looked to on that side as a remedy for impend- 
ing dangers. The honorable Senator says that it is the duty 
of the Executive Head of the Confederacy to execute the laws ; 
that it is the duty of Congress, if he has not sufficient power 
now under the law, to give it to him ; that he knows of nothing 
that can resist the laws unless it originates in insurrection or 
rebellion, which is to be put down. That is the sort of legisla- 
tion, that is the sort of remedy, to which the honorable Senator 
looks. That means, Mr. President, that in the relation which 
subsists between the States of the Union and the Federal power, 
State existence is not to be recognised; and that if a State 
abandons the Union, separates from it, severs all political con- 
nection with it, that fact is not to be recognised by, or known to, 
the Federal Government. A State in the full plenitude of her 
sovereignty, entirely resumed by her fundamental law, absolves 
her citizens from the allegiance they formerly held to the Gov- 
ernment which they abandoned. That is not to be known ; but 
the law is to march straight forward, like the car of Juggernaut, 
crushing all who may oppose it. That I understand to be the 
doctrine of the Senator from New York ; his construction of 
Federal power. Well, sir, if it be true, I am not one of those 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



i6g 



who lend my aid or my vote to any legislation contemplating 
such a state of things. They may call it what they please ; they 
may call it putting down resistance to the laws, or insurrection, 
or rebellion, or treason, in a citizen, but at last it is war — open, 
undisguised war, by one political power against another political 
power. That is it ; and the honorable Senator, seeking to evade 
— I use the term in no offensive sense; but the honorable 
Senator, seeking to characterize it in some terms that belong to 
civil jurisdiction, calls it insurrection or rebellion. The meeting 
of one political power with another political power in hostility, 
in arms, is war, and can come to nothing else." 

On December 20th, Mr. Clark (New Hampshire) moved 
to take up a resolution asking the President for information 
regarding the forts in South Carolina. Mr. Hunter, Mr. Davis, 
Mr. Mason, and others opposed the resolution on the ground 
that it was not, then, necessary, and it would have the effect of 
arousing bitterness of feeling. 

In the course of the debate, Mr. Mason said : " I have never 
doubted the perfect and indefeasible right of one of the States of 
the Union to determine for herself whether her honor and her 
safety will admit of her longer continuing in this Confederacy. 
I could not doubt it unless I denied to the States of the Con- 
federacy sovereignty, perfect sovereignty. Nor do I see, as a 
question of public law, how any doubt can be entertained on that 
question, unless it be by those who consider these States as an 
integral part of a consolidated empire, having no sovereignty. 
Nor do I see how such a position can be maintained, unless it 
be by those who consider that there is a sovereignty in this 
Government — the Government created by the Constitution. If 
there be a sovereignty in the Government created. by the Consti- 
tution, and no sovereignty in the States who created it, then the 
proposition would follow, but not until then, that the people of 
the States constituted an integral part of a common empire." 

Mr. Trumbell (Illinois), said : ** The Senators on the other 
side speak of declaring war against a State. This phrase, 
' Coerce a State,' is a phrase calculated to mislead the public 
mind. Of course we can not declare war against a State. 
Nobody proposes to coerce a State or convict a State of treason. 
You can not arraign a State for trial ; you can not convict or 



lyo 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



punish it ; but you can punish individuals. I trust the public 
mind is not to be misled or confused by this idea of coercing 
States. Men who violate the laws of the country are amenable 
to those laws, and if found guilty of violating the provisions of 
law they must sufifer the penalties of the law. The Government 
has power to coerce and punish individuals who violate its laws." 

Mr. Mason. " Will the Senator allow me one instant? H» 
says there is no purpose to make war on a State, but to punish 
indiviHuals. I understand war to be the exercise of public force 
by the authority of one State against public force under the 
authority of another State. Now I would submit to the Senator, 
when he talks about punishing individuals and executing the 
public laws by the public force of the Federal Government, and 
is met by the public force of a State Government, is not that 
war? " 

Mr. Trumbell. " I suppose that I should have the right to 
ask another question of the Senator. What does he understand 
by rebellion? " 

Mr. Mason. " I will tell the Senator with great pleasure. 
I understand, by rebellion, resistance to the laws by the citizens 
— a portion of them — laws emanating from a common govern- 
ment of those citizens, and the citizens being but an integral 
part of one government — an empire, a republic, or anything else. 
The distinction, I hold, is this — I shall detain the Senator but 
a moment in putting it, and I ask his permission to do it. The 
State governments are as sovereign at this day as they were 
when they formed the Constitution of the United States ; and 
being so, the State Governments have the power of absolving 
their citizens from the obligations to the Federal compact which 
the State entered into ; and when the State absolves its citizens 
from the obligations to the Federal compact which the State 
entered into and formed, they become as completely foreign to 
this Government as to France or England." 

January 21st, of the eventful year of 1861, witnessed an ever 
memorable scene, when the six Senators representing the States 
of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, made formal announce- 
ment to the Senate of the withdrawal of their respective States 
from the Federal Union, and bid adieu to the other Senators. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jyj 



A little later on the same day, when the " Crittenden Com- 
promise Resolutions " were under discussion, Mr. Cameron, of 
Pennsylvania, in the course of his remarks, said : " Mr. Presi- 
dent, it seems to me the only diflference between myself and the 
very distinguished Senator from Virginia (Mr. Mason) is, that 
he seeks for some excuse for getting out of this Union, while I 
desire to preserve it by any sacrifice of feeling, and I may say, of 
principle. To me, this Union is above all things in the Govern- 
ment. It seems to me that, for some reason or other, he wants 
to go out, and to put the blame on somebody else. I, on the 
contrary, am willing to save the Union which his fathers and 
mine cemented with their blood at any sacrifice becoming honor- 
able and patriotic men." 

In reply to this, as well as to what had been said by other 
Northern Senators, Mr. Mason said : " The honorable Senator 
says that I seem to be seeking an excuse to get out of this Union. 
Ah, Mr. President, that day has passed. If I felt it necessary to 
frnd an excuse, it would be to remain in the Union ; no excuse 
for going out of the Union, the Senator may rely upon it. I con- 
fess, from what I have seen here around me, and the votes that 
have been taken, I am utterly at a loss to know what excuse I 
could assign to my people for remaining in this Union. An 
excuse to get out of the Union is not necessary. Sir, what a 
spectacle have we seen to-day ! Six Senators, representing three 
States, taking a formal leave of the Senate, bringing here officially 
to the notice of the Senate that their States were no longer mem- 
bers of this Union. One State, their predecessor, has had no 
Senators here during the whole session. Another State, as we 
learn from the telegraphic news, has already dissolved its con- 
nection with this Union. Five of them gone ! Five States hold- 
ing a homogeneous interest with that which I represent ! There 
is sympathy, intimate sympathy, necessary sympathy, between 
my honored State and those, in all those ties which bind us 
together. That Senator talks to me of my wanting an excuse 
to go out of this Union! I tell the Senator, if he will look at 
it with the consideration and calmness that becomes his position, 
he would ask himself, as I would ask myself, can I find an excuse 
in any way for remaining in the Union? Can I assign any ex- 



J -2 ^^^^ 0/^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



cuse to my honored State for remaining in this Union — not ask 
for an excuse to get out of it? 

" I may speak, perhaps, Mr. President, with the tempera- 
ment that belongs to my constitution, and with some appearance 
of warmth when I do not mean it. Earnestness, I mean. I mean 
not a word of unkindness to any one here. I know if there be 
a man that can shut up his intellect and close his ears or his eyes 
to the facts around us, I am not one of them. I know that this 
Union is at this day dissolved, absolutely dissolved. The separa- 
tion of one State is as much a dissolution of the Union as the 
separation of ten. The separation of five, so far as we have gone 
at present — and it is but a work of time to add to the list — does 
no more, as far as the dissolution of the Union is concerned, 
than to confirm the fact that the Union is dissolved. 

" Honorable Senators on the other side of the chamber at 
least, I know, say the Union is not dissolved ; that the act of these 
States in separating themselves from it is a void act. They do 
not recognize it. The fact that the names of their Senators 
remain here upon your list, and are called every day to vote, is 
evidence that in the sense of Senators on that side at least, now 
in a majority, they do not recognize the fact of separation. Their 
recognition, or their, refusal to recognize, does not change the 
fact in any form or shape whatever. The States are gone ; the 
chairs here are vacant, never again to be filled under the existing 
state of things. What is the remedy ? Force ? Coercion ? The dis- 
cipline that a pedagogue inflicts upon a village urchin at school. 
Honorable Senators entertain that idea in relation to a sovereign 
State ? They tell us we have but enforced the laws ; that the 
Constitution is imperative upon the Executive Head of enforc- 
ing the laws ; and that the Constitution is imperative upon Con- 
gress, if any additional legislation is required to give it, that the 
laws may be enforced. Sir, the theory of the Government is 
against it. The voice of humanity at this civilized age is against 
it. You can not enforce your laws against the State that is no 
longer under your dominion by a barbarous war, the last resort 
of the tyrant. 

" The theory of the Government is unquestionably this : the 
laws are to be administered through the courts; and resistance 
to the laws is not known to the Constitution, unless it is resist- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jyj 



ance to the law as expounded and administered in the courts. 
Such is the whole tenor of our legislation. The President has no 
power on earth to use a ship or a soldier, unless he is first 
admonished by the civil tribunals of the country that there is a 
resistance which the civil power of the country is unequal to 
overcome. Are you to change that, and give to the President 
the power of making war by what you call enforcing the laws? 
Sir, you can not enforce the laws against any one of these seced- 
ing States unless you change the law, and you can not change 
the law unless you violate the Constitution. You can not work 
out the problem in any other way on earth that you can fix it. 

" Well, sir, what remains ? I am one of those who have 
venerated this Government for the good that it did, and for the 
hopes of the future, as much as any. man who hears me. I saw 
a people increasing from three to thirty millions in a period of 
history so small as not to be appreciated in the history of nations. 
I saw them increasing in strength, in all the resources that belong 
to nations — in intellect, wealth, power, respectability, and knowl- 
edge. I saw that it was the fruit of that Union which our fathers 
devised, and if there be any man in this broad continent who 
valued this Union more than I did, I have yet to know who he is. 
But when the preservation of that Union is required of us at the 
expense of our domestic safety and our domestic peace ; when it 
is required of us at the expense of our self-respect ; when it is 
required of us at the risk of destroying the very foundations of 
the social fabric upon which the Southern States repose, I say, 
let the Union go, with whatever regret, with whatever concern 
there may be — no remorse. I tell the honorable Senator from 
Pennsylvania, for whom I really entertain kind personal feelings, 
while this thing lasts I want no excuse for leaving the Union. 
Would to God he would give me an excuse for remaining in it. 

" Mr. President, there is but one thing remaining for us, that 
I know of. The Union is dissolved — gone. It is no longer a 
Union of thirty-three States, as it was when this Congress com- 
menced its session. How many States will remain here in the 
next month I will not undertake to say ; how many States will 
remain here on the 4th of March next, when the present Con- 
gress expires, I will not undertake to say ; but I will undertake to 
say this : that we shall not have, by many, the States that are now 



j^^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

here. Now, sir; we are in a minority on this side, certainly as 
far as the South is concerned. There are officially eight 
Senators from the Southern States absent, never to return. 
Others are to follow necessarily, backed by their States. If it is 
proposed to pass laws to coerce those States, what will be the 
result? I need not say to honorable Senators here, who them- 
selves are brave men, men conscious of their manhood, of the 
honor of their States, and prepared to meet any emergency that 
may present itself, that this idea of coercion has no terrors for 
them. Much as they would deplore it, they would deplore it 
from the consequences that must follow, and not from any per- 
sonal fear to themselves or to those connected with them. They 
must deplore it from the consequences that must follow. And 
what are those consequences? Why, sir; you make a war. Call 
it enforcing the laws, if you please ; call it whipping a child who 
has been refractory ; it is war ; the exercises of public force on one 
side against public force on the other. Well, what is the end of 
war? Peace. What has been the consequence of war? An 
unnecessary, barbarous, and indecent efifusion of human blood as 
a sacrifice to human passions, the impoverishment of the 
societies around you ; the load of debt that is to be accumulated ; 
and more than all, the breaking up of all those foundations upon 
which concord, or I should rather say amity and good will and 
kindness, should have rested among the inhabitants of the States 
of North America. It is gone, sir, and you have done it. You 
have placed it out of the power of the Southern States to con- 
federate with you any longer. You have not only declared your- 
selves enemies, but you have made them feel that you are enemies. 
" You may pursue a sentiment, or a vague idea, that you 
are enforcing the laws when you are making war ; war that the 
civilized world will acknowledge as such ; war to be governed by 
all the rules of war; and your idea of hanging for treason is 
nonsense. According to my recollection there was no man hung 
for treason during the Revolution. Threats were abundant 
enough ; but in that war, made by dependent colonies upon a 
strong and able maternal power, all their threats vanished into 
thin air. It was war. If it is instituted now, it will be followed 
by a peace. That peace will restore what treaties call amity; 
but it will be only that amity that is spoken of on the cold pages 



LIFE OF JAMES- MURRAY MASON. 



175 



of history. We shall stand, I should fear, for generations in a 
hostile relation to each other, which it will take more than gen- 
erations to remove and bring about actual peace. 

" I say to honorable Senators on the other side, or to the 
section which they represent, that peace or war is in your hands. 
The issue of war is not ; but the fact of peace or war is in your 
hands, or those whom you represent. We have no voice in it. 
If war comes it is to be made upon us ; we are to accept it, not 
to institute it. The whole responsibility will be with you, and 
you will have to answer to the generations which are to follow, 
for all the consequences of that war. Why have a war? Realize 
existing facts, and you have no war. Realize the existing fact 
that the constituents of this Government are sovereign powers, 
and that those sovereign powers are not mere component parts 
of a common empire. Remonstrate with them, reason with them 
as you will, about the exercise of their sovereignty, but concede 
it. When those States who have left us, and those States that 
are to follow, shall have assumed the condition of independence, 
they will say to you — mark my word for it — we are ready either 
for war or negotiation. Deride it if you please ; plume yourselves 
upon the numerical strength which you possess ; talk of your 
eighteen millions against eight or nine millions ; bring the bar- 
baric force of numbers to bear upon the Southern States, and 
you will have a war such as the world has seldom, if ever seen, a 
war that must terminate in a peace or extermination. But what 
is the opposite? Let them go, regret it, remonstrate, denounce 
it if you will ; but let them go. Then the good sense of nations 
will return, when passion has subsided, and a union may be 
restored or reconstructed, which never can be done if the mad 
passions of the day prevail which seem now to prevail at the 
NortTi. I am sorry to detain the Senate thus long; but I con- 
fess that I felt anxious to expose to the constituents of the 
honorable Senator from Pennsylvania, as well as to my own, that 
in the present posture of the country, I and those with whom I 
stand ask no excuse for leaving this Union; but we shall be 
deeply grateful, as after ages will be, to him, if he will give us an 
excuse to remain." 

The letters here inserted express, even more fully than his 
speeches, Mr. Mason's views regarding the fallacy of all hopes of 



1^6 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



preserving the Union under the Constitution : and the impor- 
tance of prompt action on the part of Virg-inia. The dates show 
they were written a few days after the speech in the Senate just 
given. The nomination to which he refers was that of delegate 
to the convention. The inquiry about the ice-house shows his 
never-faihng thought for the comfort of his family. 

"Washington, January 27th, 1861. 

" My Dear Daughter: I received night before last, yours of 
Monday, and the next morning Mr. Ambler read me Anna's 
letter with an account of the nomination. I am glad they let me 
ofif, because, if elected, I could not have retained my seat here, 
and in view of events to happen before the 4th of March, I had 
rather be at my post here than resign it to another. Mr. Hunter 
has also, and for like reasons, declined the convention. We are 
having a quiet time here azvaiting events. We think now that 
peace will be preserved until after the 4th of March ; after that, 
we rely on having a Southern Confederacy organized and strong 
enough to defy assailants. All hope of adjustment is gone, and 
the Senators and Representatives here from Virginia have so 
announced in a public letter to the people of the State, sent yes- 
terday to Richmond for publication, and which you will see in 
a few days. It is the joint production of Muscoe Garnett and 
myself. 

" Is our ice-house filled? I have had no bill. 
" Yours most affectionately, 

" J. M. M." 

Very many, if not the majority, of the people of Virginia 
refused to believe " All hope of adjustment was gone " and still 
clung to the expectation of an amicable settlement of all diffi- 
culties by the Peace Congress ; it was, therefore, important they 
should have the information and the warning now given in this 
letter which was addressed to the people of Virginia, and said : 

" We deem it our duty, as your Representatives at Wash- 
ington, to lay before you such information as we may possess in 
the present alarming condition of the country. 

" At the beginning of this session, now more than half over, 
committees were appointed in both Houses of Congress, to con- 
sider the state of the Union. Neither committee has been able 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA8JN. jyy 

to agree upon any mode of settlement of the pending issues be- 
tween the North and the South. The Republican members in 
both committees rejected propositions acknowledging the right 
of property in slaves, or recommending the division of the 
Territories between the slaveholding and the non-slaveholding 
States by a geographical line. 

" In the Senate, the propositions commonly known as Mr. 
Crittenden's were voted against by every Republican Senator; and 
the House, by a vote of ayes and noes, refused to consider cer- 
tain propositions moved by Mr. Etheridge, which were even less 
favorable to the South than Mr. Crittenden's. 

"A resolution giving a pledge to sustain the President in the 
use of force against the seceding States was adopted in the 
House of Representatives by a large majority ; and in the Senate 
every Republican voted to substitute for Mr. Crittenden's prop- 
ositions, resolutions offered by Mr. Clark, of New Hampshire, 
declaring no new concessions, guarantees, or amendments were 
necessary ; that the demands of the South were unreasonable, 
and that the remedy for the present danger was simply to enforce 
"the laws, in other words, coercion and war. 

" In this state of facts, our duty is to warn you that it is vain 
to hope for any measure of conciliation or adjustment from Con- 
gress which you could accept. We are also satisfied that the 
Republican party designs by civil war alone, to coerce the South- 
ern States, under the pretext of enforcing the laws, unless it shall 
become speedily apparent that the seceding States are so 
numerous, determined, and united as to make such an attempt 
hopeless. 

" We are confirmed in these conclusions by our general 
intercourse here ; by the speeches of the Republican leaders here 
and elsewhere ; by the recent refusals of the Legislatures of 
Vermont, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to repeal their obnoxious 
personal liberty laws ; by the action of the Illinois Legislature on 
resolutions approving the Crittenden propositions, and by the 
adoption of resolutions in the New York and Massachusetts 
Legislatures (doubtless to be followed by others) offering men 
and money for the war of coercion. 

" We have thus placed before you the facts and conclusions 
which have become manifest to us from this post of observation 



178 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



where you have placed us. There is nothing to be hoped from 
Congress ; the remedy is with you alone when you assemble in 
sovereign convention. 

" We conclude by expressing our solemn conviction that 
prompt and decided action by the people of Virginia in con- 
vention will afford the surest means, under the providence of 
God, of averting a civil war and preserving the hope of recon- 
structing a Union already dissolved. 

" Signed : 

"J. M. MASON, 
" R. M. T. HUNTER, 
" D. C. DE JARNETTE, 
" M. R. H. GARNETT. 
" SHELTON F. LEAKE, 
" E. S. MARTIN, 
" H. A. EDMUNDSON, 
" ROGER A. PRYOR, 
" THOS. S. BOCOCK, 
"A. G. JENKINS. 
" Washington City, January 26th, 1861." 

(Owing to the detention of ex-Governor Smith at his home 
in Virginia by sickness, this address could not be presented to 
him for his signature. There is no doubt he would have joined 
in it, if present.) 

The Peace Congress assembled in Washington on February 
4th, less than ten days after the foregoing " warning." On Feb- 
ruary 27th, the measures agreed upon by this body were 
formally communicated to both Houses of Congress. 

This " Peace Congress " was composed of one hundred and 
thirty-three commissioners who represented the States of Maine, 
New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 
necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Mary- 
land, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Kansas. They 
agreed upon certain measures embodied in the form of an amend- 
ment to the Constitution, which they submitted to Congress with 
the request that it should be submitted to conventions in the 
States as Article XIII of the amendments to the Constitution. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



179 



On February 28th, the day after this communication was 
received by the Senate, Mr. Mason said : " The message of the 
President communicates to the Senate certain resolutions 
adopted by the General Assembly of Virginia, now in session, 
expressive of the sense and earnest desire of that State, so far 
as that sense can be expressed by the Legislative body, in regard 
to the great movement which has already separated the States 
of this Union. They were communicated officially and formally 
to the President of the United States by the General Assembly 
of Virginia. The purpose of the resolutions is twofold : First, 
to inform the President that Virginia has undertaken the office of 
mediating between the two great sections of the country, in the 
hope that measures might be devised which, if they could not 
avert that v/hich had already happened — the dissolution of the 
Union of the States — might be the means of healing that rupture, 
and of restoring the Union under guarantees and provisions that 
might be satisfactory to both sections. The next object of the 
resolutions was, to induce the President of the United States, as 
the Executive Department of this Government, so far as with 
him lay, to refrain from any act which might bring into col- 
lision the public power of the United States with the public 
power of the States that have seceded, from a knowledge that if 
such collision once ensued, it would be beyond the power of any 
mortal man to avert that greatest of all catastrophes to this 
country and to mankind, civil war between the people of this 
Union and the people of those other States. It was a great 
mission which Virginia has thus instituted, in the hope expressed 
in the resolutions : that this existing rupture of the States might 
be healed, and that every effort should be made in the meantime 
to avoid that greatest catastrophe, civil war. The President, in 
communicating those resolutions to Congress, has responded to 
the spirit of the General Assembly and has expressed the earnest 
hope that the objects of the General Assembly may be attained 
by Congress refraining from any act which would tend to lead 
to that collision. 

" Mr. President, it is known that Virginia has participated 
in this movement as one of the States affected, and the great 
purpose in the mission that she has instituted now in Washing- 
ton is to induce the Federal authorities to refrain from any act 



jgQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

which shall complicate, and irretrievably complicate, the exist- 
ing issues between the North and the South. How is that to be 
done? The President has said in his message that very little 
power rests with him ; that he considers it his duty, a duty in- 
cumbent upon his office, to provide for the security of the public 
property so far as it may be within his power. I trust, sir, that 
this great object of Virginia in preserving the public peace be- 
tween the opposing sections, for the time being, at least, may be 
successful. We know the Senate has been officially informed 
that, of the thirty-three States that constituted this Union, six 
have separated themselves from it by formal acts of the political 
community in each State, transacted as a political community ; 
that is a fact accomplished. Those States declare that they are 
no longer members of this Confederacy. None can doubt, I pre- 
sume, from the evidence before our senses almost, that other 
States are to follow. The great object of Virginia in the mission 
instituted by these resolutions is to preserve the public peace, in 
the hope, as expressed in the resolutions, that if it be the pleasure 
of other States to send commissioners here, to meet those dele- 
gated by Virginia, they may devise some additional amendment 
to the Constitution, in some form that will guaranty the rights of 
the minority section, which will be found acceptable to all the 
Southern States, and may even win back those who have sepa- 
rated themselves from the Union ; or if that can not be done, and, 
if, in the providence of the Almighty, it should be decreed that 
the existing confederation is to be permanently dissolved, still, 
that the peace of this great continent shall be preserved notwith- 
standing, and opportunity allowed for that great fund of good 
sense which is found in every section to interpose and take up 
the subject as it may be found by events, and see if the existing 
Union can not be restored, or if some other form of union in the 
nature of reconstruction, can not be devised, which, while it 
would insure the security of all, majorities, and minorities, would 
conduce to the great interests, the permanent interests of the 
great people who are diffused all over the States. That is the 
ulterior end. 

" Should it unfortunately occur, however, either from im- 
patience in the States that have separated, or from any undue and 
over zeal in any department of the Federal Government, that the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jgi 



two sections should be brought into collision, there is an end to 
all negotiation. Men never negotiate in war. There must be a 
peace first. If there be any honorable Senator on this floor, or 
any citizen of any one of the States, who, under existing events, 
yet indulges the belief that an attempt to enforce the Federal 
laws in the States that have declared themselves beyond the 
Federal jurisdiction is not an act which leads to war, and to war 
alone, never was such a Senator or such a citizen more deluded. 
I have had occasion to say so heretofore. I speak it now, sir, 
certainly not in anger ; but I should speak it in sorrow, if I could 
be brought to contemplate such an event. 

" I think too, Mr. President, that we have evidences, daily 
evidences, from that section of the country which has separated 
itself from this Union, that, while the authorities there have 
thought it necessary, as measures of precaution to possess them- 
selves in the several States, of the forts, arsenals, navy yards, and 
military materials found within their limits, acknowledging them 
to be part of the public property all the time, they have done 
so with no intention on their part to make war ; they have done 
so, as they conceived, only as measures of necessary, prudent 
precaution, in the event that any war should, unhappily, be waged 
on them. And, I think, honorable Senators on the other side 
will respond to the declaration, when I say that there is not 
one of those States, when they shall be restored to the Union, 
if they shall be restored, or when peace shall be concluded, if 
war should now follow, who will not account for every dollar of 
the public property that they have taken. I believe those States 
are actuated iit this moment by an earnest desire to refrain from 
every act which would break the public peace. The State of 
Virginia has invoked a like disposition on the part of the Govern- 
ment. I hope it will be successful. It is the only mode now left, 
under the direction of the Supreme Being, by which the people 
of this country can be saved from a civil war, and be restored to 
Government relations, in some form, under auspices that may yet 
lead a united country back to that great path of prosperity and 
strength and honor from which they have been diverted by the 
present (as I consider it) necessary movement on the part of 
those States. 

" I have deemed it incumbent upon me, Mr. President, as this 



jg2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



mediation originated with my State, to respond to the sentiments 
expressed in the message, in an earnest desire that the pubHc 
peace may be preserved until events work out, in their own way, 
the great revolution which is impending, or rather which is per- 
fected in six of the States of this Union." 

In striking contrast with the opinions and feelings here ex- 
pressed by Mr. Mason, another extract is taken from the Con- 
gressional Globe of February 27th, of same year, which will be 
found on page 1247 of Part II, Thirty-Sixth Congress. 

Mr. Powell (Kentucky), said: "I move to postpone the 
Army bill for the purpose of taking up the resolutions to amend 
the Constitution proposed by my colleague (Mr. Crittenden). 
For several weeks, Senators have declined to make an effort to 
call up the propositions of my colleague for the reason that cer- 
tain peace commissioners were in session in this Capital, con- 
vened at the call of the State of Virginia. I am confident now 
that that commission. Peace Congress, or Conference, or what- 
ever you may call it, will not accomplish anything. Indeed, 
certain facts have fallen under my notice, that cause me to be- 
lieve that it has been the fixed purpose of certain Republicans 
that that conference should not accomplish anything. I have 
thought that for some time past. A friend sent me, yesterday, 
The Detroit Free Press, containing two letters from the distin- 
guished Senators from Michigan to their Governor, which, I 
think, clearly and fully establish the fact that the Republicans, 
a portion of them at least, instead of sending commissioners to 
that conference with a view to inaugurate something that would 
compromise the difhculties by which we are surrounded, and 
save the country from ruin, have absolutely been engaged in the 
work of sending delegates there to prevent that commission from 
doing anything. I send this paper to the desk and ask the 
Secretary to read these letters." 

The Secretary read as follows : 

"Washington, February 15th, 1861. 

" Dear Sir: When Virginia proposed a convention in 

Washington, in reference to the disturbed condition of the 

country, I regarded it as another effort to debauch the public 

mind, and a step towards obtaining that concession which the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



183 



slave power so insolently demands. I have no doubt at present 
but that was the design. I was therefore pleased that the Legis- 
lature of Michigan was not disposed to put herself in a position 
to be controlled by such influences. The convention has met 
here, and within' a few days the aspect of things has materially 
changed. Every Free State, I think, except Michigan and Wis- 
consin, is represented ; and we have been assured by friends upon 
whom we can rely, that if those States should send delegations 
of true, unflinching men, there would probably be a majority in 
favor of the Constitution as it is, who would frown down rebel- 
lion by the enforcement of the laws. 

" These friends have urged us to recommend the appoint- 
ment of delegates from our State ; and, in compliance with their 
request, Mr. Chandler and myself telegraphed to you last night. 
It can not be doubted that the recommendations of this con- 
vention will have very considerable influence upon the public 
mind, and upon the action of Congress. 

" I have a great disinclination to any interference with what 
should properly be submitted to the wisdom and discretion of 
the Legislature, in which I place great reliance ; but I hope I 
shall be pardoned for suggesting that it may be justifiable and 
proper, by any honorable means, to avert the lasting disgrace 
which will attach to a free people who by the peaceful exercise 
of the ballot, have just released themselves from the tyranny of 
slavery, if they should now succumb to treasonable threats, and 
again submit to a degrading thraldom. If it should be deemed 
proper to send delegates, I think, if they could be here by the 
20th, it would be in time. 

" I have the honor, with much respect, to be truly yours, 

"K. S. BINGHAM. 
" To His Excellency, Governor Blair.'' 

"Washington, February nth, 1861. 
" My Dear Governor: Governor Bingham and myself tele- 
graphed you on Saturday, at the request of Massachusetts and 
New York, to send delegates to the Peace or Compromise Con- 
gress. They admit that we were right and they were wrong; 
that no Republican States should have sent delegates; but they 
are here and cannot get away. Ohio, Indiana, and Rhode 



i84 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Island are caving in, and there is danger of Illinois ; and now they 
beg us, for God's sake to come to their rescue, and save the 
Republican party from rupture. I hope you will send stiff 
backed men or none. The whole thing was gotten up against 
my judgment and advice, and will end in thin smoke. Still I 
hope as a matter of courtesy to some of our erring brethren, 
that you will send the delegates. 

" Truly your friend, 

" Z. CHANDLER. 
" His Excellency Austin Blair. 

" P. S. — Some of the manufacturing States think that a fight 
would be awful. Without a little blood-letting this Union will 
not be, in my estimation, worth a rush." 

It should be here noted that day after day during all this 
session, innumerable petitions, signed by hundreds of thousands 
of the citizens of the Northern States, were sent to their Senators 
and Representatives in Congress urging them to make amend- 
ments to the Constitution or to adopt such other measures as 
might preserve the peace of the country. Hundreds of these 
petitions specifically asked the adoption of the " Crittenden Com- 
promise Resolutions " ; others simply prayed for peace. None 
of them appeared to receive any special attention, as they were all 
announced to the Senate as having been received and were " laid 
on the table." They should, however, be remembered and 
recorded as testimony of value to those interested in fixing the 
responsibility of war upon those who should rightly be held to 
account for it. 

No vote was taken on either the Crittenden Resolutions or 
on those proposed by the Peace Congress until late in the night 
of the third of March, when they were rejected by the Republi- 
cans. 

On March 5th, the Senate met, in special session, according 
to the usual custom, after the inauguration of a new President. 
Both the Senators from Virginia continued in regular attendance 
and, so far as it was possible, continued to participate in the trans- 
action of the public business, although the Republican majority 
had been so largely increased by the accession to their side of 
the chamber of nearly all the newly elected Senators, as well as 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



185 



by the withdrawal of those from the seceding States that 
further remonstrance against their measures was evidently hope- 
less ; still, their voices were frequently heard in warnings to the 
country of the impending evils. 

On March 8th, 1861, Mr. Foster (Connecticut) offered the 
following resolution : " Whereas, Hon. L. T. Wigfall, now a 
Senator of the United States from the State of Texas, has 
declared in debate that he is a foreigner, that he owes no alle- 
giance to this Government, but that he belongs to and owes 
allegiance to another and foreign government : Therefore, 
Resolved, That the said L. T. Wigfall be, and he hereby is, ex- 
pelled from this body." 

On March nth, this resolution being before the Senate, 
Mr. Mason said : 

" Mr. President, the resolution, which I have examined this 
morning, in its preamble recites the cause of the expulsion. It 
is what the Senator has said upon this floor. The language of 
the resolution is, that he has declared in debate ; so that the 
cause of the expulsion is what the Senator has said. Now, sir, 
the Constitution of the United States, to enable the Senate to 
protect itself, has given to the Senate the power to expel a mem- 
ber provided two-thirds vote for the resolution ; but the 
expulsion of the member is, of necessity, punitive in its char- 
acter; and the intention of the resolution offered by the Senator 
from Connecticut is punitive — punishing for what the Senator 
has said in debate. The Senator, to be sure, in the argument 
lie delivered in support of the resolution, has said that the facts 
alleged by the Senator from Texas are inconsistent with a seat 
upon this floor — to wit : that he is a foreigner, and not a citizen 
of the United States. If the Senator thinks he ought not to be 
a member of the Senate because of those facts — that he is not 
a citizen, and does not owe allegiance — the Senator knows very 
well that the mode, and the only parliamentary and just mode, 
is to refer it to a committee to inquire into the facts ; and if it is 
found to be true, in the judgment of the Senate, that he is not a 
citizen of the United States, he would not be expelled, but his 
seat would be declared vacant because of that fact. But the 
purpose of the resolution, as I have said, is punitive — to punish 
the Senator. 



i86 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" The language of the resolution is, that the Senator has 
declared in debate, first, that he is a foreigner ; and, next, that he 
owes no allegiance to this Government. Now, sir, if it be a 
punishable offence to allege a constitutional truth in the Senate, 
then the Senator's resolution may be well founded, I aver it 
here, as a Senator from Virginia, in the face of the coimtry, that 
I owe and recognize no allegiance to the Government of the 
United States — none whatever ; and there I take my position 
alongside of the Senator from Texas. 

" Although the State of Virginia is a constituent of this 
Government as one of the Confederate States, and I am her rep- 
resentative here, and her engagements with this Government 
when she became a party to the Constitution remain entirely 
unimpaired, yet I am utterly unconscious that I owe any alle- 
giance to this Government. I do owe allegiance, in the accep- 
tation of it known to American law, to the State of Virginia, and 
nowhere else on earth. Why, what is this Government? Does 
the Senator from Connecticut rest his extraordinary doctrines 
of constitutional law which he has presented here this morn- 
ing on the idea that the Government of the United States is 
his sovereign? If he does, God help him. Then, so far as the 
Senator from Texas has committed an offence in saying that he 
owes no allegiance to this Government, I stand at his side, and 
I should be unworthy of my true relation to my sovereign State 
if I did not. 

" Sir, what is allegiance? The old feudal interpretation of 
the term allegiance, doubtless, is known to every Senator, and 
all who are conversant with the constitutional history of Eng- 
land, from whence we derive chiefly our institutions. Allegiance 
is the relation between subject and sovereign ; in the old feudal 
times, the relation between vassal and lord. Allegiance under 
our American institutions is the allegiance which is due from 
the citizen to the sovereign power; and I know of no sovereign 
power anywhere but in the States that are parties to this Confed- 
eracy ; and I take it for granted, with all submission to the better 
opinion of the honorable Senator from Connecticut, that his 
State is his sovereign ; and if he acknowledges allegiance to this 
Government he is faithless to her. Why, sir, we have a law in 
Virginia prescribing the oath to citizens of Virginia, and that 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



187 



oath I have taken the trouble to transcribe, for the purpose of 
illustration. The oath of allegiance in Virginia, to be taken by 
all those who are admitted in any way to a participation in the 
political power of the State, is this : 

'' ■ I declare myself a citizen of the Commonwealth of Vir- 
ginia, and solemnly swear that I will be faithful and true to the 
said Commonwealth, and will support the constitution thereof 
so long as I continue to be a citizen of the same. 

" *I will be faithful and true to the said Commonwealth '■ — 
that is allegiance. Am I told by the Senator that we have a 
divided allegiance; that we can owe allegiance to two sovereigns? 
Am I to be told by the Senator that when I come here as a rep- 
resentative from a sovereign State, I put of¥ my allegiance, and 
put on a new garb, and not to my sovereign, but to a mere 
agency? That is my construction of constitutional obligation 
and constitutional law. That, I take it for granted, is the con- 
struction placed upon it by the honorable Senator from Texas ; 
and he is to be expelled because he dififers in his idea of consti- 
tutional obligation with the Senator from Connecticut. 

" Then again : The honorable Senator, it is alleged, said that 
he is a foreigner. Well, sir, if he is a foreigner, he is not a 
citizen of the United States, and he is not entitled to a seat on 
this floor; but that is because of the fact, not because of the 
allegation. If he is not a citizen, the Constitution says he 
shall not have a seat on this floor, but if he is mistaken in 
the fact, he is under no constitutional disqualification. Now, 
the honorable Senator from Connecticut heard what I suppose 
we all heard in the discursive remarks made by the very able 
Senator from Texas the other day. I do not pretend to quote 
his language, but I think I know the substance of what he said. 
He said, in his belief he was a foreigner to this Government ; 
and why? Because, in his belief, the State of Texas, of which 
he was a citizen, had separated itself from this Union ; but he 
did not know the fact, and so alleged. He does not know the fact 
now, unless he got the information last night ; for last night, in 
conversation with him, I inquired what was the news from his 
State ; whether he had yet evidence of this fact? He said, " No." 
I presume he has not got it yet. His statement was, that, in his 
belief, he was a foreigner to this Government ; because, in his be- 



jgg LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



lief, the people of Texas have ratified, by their popular vote, the 
act of their convention declaring the separation. Why does he 
beheve it? He has had no evidence of it. He believes it because 
of his knowledge that the popular sentiment of his State has de- 
termined to separate itself from this Government ; but that is to 
be evinced by the popular vote. The Senator told us, although he 
believed himself a foreigner, he had no proof of it, but when he 
had proof of it, he would exhibit it here in the face of the Senate, 
as his predecessors in separation from the Government had done. 
He would exhibit it here in the face of the Senate, that his State 
was separated from this Government, and therefore he was no 
longer constitutionally a Senator ; or, as he expressed it, he would 
exhibit to the Senate, when he got it, evidence of the fact that 
the office which he held here had been abolished by his State. 
That is the substance of it ; and yet, because of these declara- 
tions, the honorable Senator from Connecticut asks for his ex- 
pulsion. 

" Now, Mr. President, I am not going into the argument 
which the honorable Senator from Connecticut has conducted 
with the ability that belongs to him, about the right of separa- 
tion. The honorable Senator, as others around him and the 
new President have done, declares that an act of separation by 
a State is a mere nullity, and that the State holds the same rela- 
tion to the Confederacy after the act of separation that it held 
before. That is the language and doctrine of the honorable 
Senator. We deny it. My State denies it. Six States — six, so 
far as the proof has gone — have not only denied it, but have 
acted on that denial, and have separated ; and they have not only 
separated, but they have confederated anew ; they have formed 
a new government ; as I said here the other day, a government 
perfect in all its parts, and a government prepared to sustain 
itsef in arms if this Government should endeavor to subdue it. 
If Senators still persist in saying as matter of constitutional law, 
that these States have not separated, that their act is null, they 
are holding language which — I say it with great respect, for I 
feel no other sentiment towards them — is more disrespectful to 
the Senate tenfold than that which the Senator from Connecticut 
says deserves punishment of expulsion in the case of the Senator 
from Texas ; and why? Because, by their language, they declare 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



189 



that five million people, and six or seven sovereign States, are 
in a state of insubordination and insurrection, and they are 
taking no measure to quell it. 

" They declare here that the acts of those States are null ; 
and, although they have seized what they call the public property, 
although they have possessed themselves of the forts and of the 
public arms, yet they take no means whatever, and recommend 
and propose none, to recover it or to subdue them. I say, then, 
that honorable Senators holding that language in relation to the 
condition of the country, as they understand it, and not acting 
upon it, are much more disrespectful to the body to which they 
belong than the language of the honorable Senator from Texas, 
because, with him, as with me, it is a question of constitutional 
construction, and nothing more in the world. How can we owe 
allegiance to this Government? How can I owe allegiance to 
it? If I do, then I must obey the orders and the commands of 
thfs Government in preference to those of my State. I must put 
off the fealty which subsists between me and the State of Vir- 
ginia, as citizen and sovereign, and endue myself with a new 
livery, not to a sovereign, but a mere temporary agency — I 
mean by * temporary,' one that is entirely dependent upon 
the will and pleasure of those who created it. Nor is 
there, in my judgment, anything in support of this argument in 
the fact that I and other Senators here are Sworn to support the 
Constitution. I am sworn to support the Constitution. I am 
not sworn to be true and faithful to the Government, as I have 
sworn to be true and faithful to the State of Virginia ; but I am 
sworn to support the Constitution. What does that mean? Does 
it mean that, under no circumstances,! will be a party to a change 
in that Constitution? If I change the Constitution by my act, 
I do not support it. Does it mean that I am not at liberty in 
any way to change the Constitution or the form of govern- 
ment? Certainly not; because, if it does, it would put this 
famous Peace Congress that assembled here the other day under 
appointment of their several States as mediators, in the char- 
acter of plotters against the Government, which many of them, 
I know, had sworn to support. As I construe that oath, it 
means this : ' that while you participate in the administration ot 
the Government, or while you live under the Government, if you 



igo 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



are not participating in its administration, you will support the 
Government as it is organized ' ; but that does not prohibit you, 
so far as I reason, if you think, or more properly if your State 
thinks, there are reasons, paramount to your contract, from sepa- 
rating yourself from it, and thus, as far as you are concerned, 
cease to support the Constitution. 

" But take it altogether, are gentlemen on this side of the 
chamber to be subject to this high punition of the Constitution, 
because they diflfer in its construction from gentlemen on the 
other side? Is that to be the rule that is to be measured out to 
minorities now? We stand here in a minority; a minority becom- 
ing less in numbers every day ; you stand there in a majority ; 
a majority increasing every day, or every year. Is this to be the 
measure by which the relations of minority and majority are to 
be governed in the Government of the United States which is 
not supreme and not sovereign? If it is, let us understand it. 

" Now, sir, I do not mean at all to take any issue with the 
Senator from Connecticut in his disclaimer of any personal feel- 
ing; but if there are not personal or party motives lying at the 
foundation of this thing, unknown to the Senator — for my 
respect, and real respect, for him, forbids me to suppose that he 
is not candid and frank — I am at a loss to conceive — when he 
seeks to punish the Senator for what he said, and afterwards 
said that if what he said is the fact, he ought not to sit here 
— why he applies so high a remedy to a declaration of opinion 
which he thinks is wrong ; for at least it amounts to that." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



igi 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Secession of Virginia — Winchester a Military Camp — Seizure of Harper's 
Ferry — Summer of 1861 in Winchester — Appointed Commissioner to Eng- 
land— Letters from Charleston, from the San Jacinto, and from Port War- 
ren — His Own Account of His Capture and Imprisonment — Release from 
Fort Warren and Arrival in London. 

There is no record of the exact day on which Mr. Mason left 
Washington, but there is no reference to him in the Congressional 
Globe as having been present in the Senate after the 19th of 
March or to Mr. Hunter after the 20th, although the session 
did not close until the 28th of that month. 

Long before the meeting of the extra session (on July 4th), 
Virginia had been enrolled among the Confederate States, and 
both Mr. Mason and Mr. Hunter had become members of the 
Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. On July nth, 
both of them, together with several other Southern Senators, 
were expelled from the Senate of the United States, by a vote 
of thirty-two ayes against ten nays, on a resolution oflfered 
by Mr. Clark, Senator from New Hampshire, on the ground, 
as stated in the resolution : ' they were engaged in a conspiracy 
for the destruction of the Union and Government, or, with full 
knowledge of said conspiracy, had failed to advise the Govern- 
ment of its progress or aid in its suppression.' 

The 15th of April, 1861, found Mr. Mason quietly awaiting 
events at Selma, his home near Winchester, and when the news 
of the President's * Proclamation reached him, his first com- 
ment was : " This ends the question ; Virginia will at once 
secede." He went immediately to Richmond, where the con- 
vention was in session, and a letter to Mr. Davis, written from 

*This proclamation read: "IVhereas, the laws of the United States 
have been, for some time past, and now are, opposed and the execution 
thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Missis- 
sippi, Louisiana, and Texas by combinations too powerful to be suppressed 
by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested 
in the marshals by law, Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of 
the United States, in virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution 
and the laws, have thought fit to call forth, and hereby do call forth, the 
mihtia of the several States of the Union to the aggregate number of 
75,000 in order to suppress said combination, and to cause the laws to be 
duly executed." 



igz LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



that city on April 17th, said : " I came here last night ; you may 
rely now that Virginia will secede and promptly. Vessels sunk 
last night in the harbof at Norfolk to cut off the navy-yard, 
and troops ordered there to sustain the movement. Harper's 
Ferry arsenal to be seized at once. You shall hear as things 
advance. If you have anything to reply, telegraph me here." 

Within a few hours after this letter was written the con- 
vention had passed the ordinance of secession, had sent a 
dispatch to Montgomery proposing alliance with the Confed- 
erate States, and had, by means of trusted messengers, sum- 
moned the people of Frederick and the adjoining counties to 
assemble promptly in Winchester, there to organize and pro- 
ceed to take possession of the United States arsenal and armory 
at Harper's Ferry. May 23d was appointed as the day when 
the ordinance of secession should be ratified by the votes of the 
people ; but this was well understood to be merely a legal form, 
so unanimous was the determination of all parties never to unite 
in a war against the other Southern States, and all necessary 
measures of self-defense were adopted without loss of time. 
Quickly did the people respond to this sudden call, and the 
quiet, peaceful town of Winchester was transformed, as by 
magic, into a military camp. 

It is true the people of all the Southern States were in a con- 
dition of anxious expectation and were prepared for any exigency 
that might arise, but the first intimation to the inhabitants of 
Winchester, of the action of the convention was the arrival, soon 
after dawn, on the morning of April i8th, of large numbers of 
men from the adjacent country, men of all sorts and conditions, 
rich and poor, some in their carriages, some on horseback, 
some in wagons, many of them on foot, and in their ordinary 
working-clothes, for, in some cases, they had literally left their 
ploughs standing in the fields and had joined their comrades, 
who hailed them from the road as they passed. All day long 
they continued to coitie, until the population was, perhaps, more 
than doubled ; some of them brought the shot-guns ordinarily 
used for killing birds, squirrels, etc., others had pocket-pistols, 
the majority were without arms of any kind ; all were, however, 
hungry, after their early, and, in many cases, long walk or ride, 
consequently, the hospitality of the town was taxed to feed the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jgj 

unexpected army. It is needless to say it stood the test as 
nobly as it met all the others that came during the next four 
years. The houses were all thrown open, the men were well 
fed, and those who remained in town during the next night, were 
provided with comfortable quarters and treated as if they had 
been invited guests. This is not only true of those citizens who 
were themselves supplied with the comforts of life, but it applies 
equally well to the poor people of the town, who earned their 
bread by the sweat of their brows, and includes the women, 
whose scanty support was dependent upon their needles. No 
sacrifice was deemed too great when required to repel the threat- 
ened invasion by the armies of the North. 

Prior to the i8th of April, 1861, there was one train daily 
from Winchester to Harper's Ferry, which train, consisting gen- 
erally of one passenger car with baggage car, and engine, left 
Winchester at a convenient hour in the morning, made the jour- 
ney of thirty miles in time to make connection at " The Ferry " 
with the east-bound train on the Baltimore and Ohio road, then 
waited for the cars from Baltimore, and returned to Winchester 
in the afternoon. When, on this memorable day, the sudden 
demand was made for the transportation of troops, several hours 
were required to have a sufficient number of cars brought to 
Winchester, and this interval was busily employed by the citi- 
zens of the town in feeding the men, who continued to come in 
crowds from the surrounding country. Words fail to describe 
the tension of feeling when, soon after midday, a long and 
crowded train steamed off, carrying the sons, brothers, and hus- 
bands from almost every house in the town, and the people real- 
ized that war had begun. 

The result of this first expedition of the Virginia militia 
is told in the following reports made by the commanding offi- 
cers of both the Federal and the Virginia troops, which are 
copied from " The Official Records of the War of the Rebellion " : 

" Headquarters United States Army, 

" Mounted Rifles, U. S. Army, 

" Harper's Ferry, Va., April 18, 1861, 9 P. M. 

" To the Assistant Adjutant-General, Headquarters U. S. Army, 
Washington, D. C. 

"Sir : Up to the present time no assault or attempt to 



jg. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

seize the Government property here has been made, but there is 
decided evidence that the subject is in contemplation, and has 
been all day, by a large number of people living in the direction 
of Charlestown ; and at sundown this evening several companies 
of troops had assembled at Halltown, about three or four miles 
from here, on the road to Charlestown, with the intention of 
seizing the Government property, and the last report is that the 
attack will be made to-night. 

" Respectfully, etc., 

" R. JONES, 
" First Lieutenant, Mounted Riflemen, Commanding." 

And later to General Scott: 

" Chambersburg, April 19, 1861. 

" Finding my position untenable, shortly after 10 o'clock 
last night, I destroyed the arsenal, containing 15,000 stands of 
arms, and burned up the armory building proper, and under 
cover of night withdrew my command almost in the presence of 
twenty-five hundred or three thousand troops. This was accom- 
plished with but four casualties. I believe the destruction must 
have been complete. I will await orders at Carlisle. 

" R. JONES. 
" To General Winfleld Scott." 

It would seem from the report of Major-General Kenton 
Harper (commander of the Virginia militia), that the destruction 
of the arsenal and armory was not so complete as Lieutenant 
Jones supposed, for, on April 21st, General Harper wrote to 
General William H. Richardson, Adjutant-General, at Rich- 
mond: 

" Dear Sir : My present force here is about two thousand. 
I have endeavored to get up a consolidated report of the 
strength and condition of my command, but defer it on account 
of imperfectness in the returns. The work of forwarding to 
Winchester uncompleted arms and machinery progresses rap- 
idly. The troops assembled without ammunition generally, and, 
there being little here, I have had to send abroad for it. I 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



195 



expect, from news just received, an additional force to-morrow 
of five hundred men. If needed, I could have thousands. 
"Very respectfully, etc., 

" KENTON HARPER, 

" Major-General, Commanding. 
" Division Headquarters, Harper's Ferry, Va." 

Again on April 22d, General Harper wrote to Governor 
Letcher : " My object has been, not only to secure all the 
efficient arms here, and remove the machinery in such manner 
as that it may be readily put together again, as well as all the un- 
finished guns, but to have an inventory made of the public prop- 
erty, so that the officers charged with the details may be held 
to proper account. 

" From the information I have of the condition of the guns 
in progress of manufacture, there are components to fit up 
readily for use from seven to ten thousand stand of arms, ex- 
clusive of those rescued uninjured from the flames." 

Also a letter from Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of 
the Confederate States : 

" Richmond, April 22d, 1861. 
" To President Davis: 

" Arrived here this morning ; shall meet convention in closed 
doors to-morrow at i o'clock. Harper's Ferry in our hands. 
Arsenal containing 16,000 arms blown up by the U. S. forces, 
4,000 or 5,000 saved. Best guns ; all machinery of value, esti- 
mated -at $2,000,000, saved. Gosport Navy Yard burned and 
evacuated by the enemy. 2,500 guns, artillery and ordnance, 
saved, and 3,000 barrels of powder; also large supply of caps, 
and shells loaded, with the Boarman fuse attached. Yard not 
so much injured as supposed. Merrimac, Germantown, and 
Dolphin sunk ; Cumberland escaped. Only portion of Massachu- 
setts regiment reached Washington; 16,000 troops north of 
Baltimore. Governor Hicks with United States (sic.). General 
Stuart, of Maryland asks aid. Governor Letcher has ordered 
1,000 guns at Harper's Ferry to be sent to him. The South 
Carolina regiment will come here. Governor Letcher, this 
morning, issued proclamation ordering 5,000 infantry and rifles 
to rendezvous immediately on railroad. Plenty awaiting a com- 



iqO 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



mander-in-chief. Colonel Robert E. Lee is expected to-day, and 
is looked to as the commander. All the navy officers of Vir- 
ginia have resigned and tendered services to the State. Gov- 
ernor Letcher got a card on Saturday, sent from Gordonsville, 
purporting to be from Mr. Benjamin, saying you would be here 
on Wednesday ; it is, of course, bogus. 

" ALEX. H. STEPHENS." 

An extract from the proceedings of the Advisory Council of 
Virginia shows that : " It being considered desirable to ascer- 
tain the condition of affairs and the state of public feeling in 
Maryland, the Governor is respectfully advised to appoint Colonel 
James M, Mason a commissioner to proceed forthwith to that 
State, and communicate to the Governor such information as he 
may obtain." 

Such a commission was accordingly sent by Governor 
Letcher to Mr. Mason on April 21st. He went, at once, to visit 
Frederick City and other places in Maryland, and returned to 
Richmond about the first of May, " spoke encouragingly of the 
feeling of the Legislature and the probable secession of the 
State." 

The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States met, in 
special session, at Montgomery, Alabama, on April 29th. Hav- 
ing been in the Senate of the United States, at the time of the 
secession of Virginia, Mr. Mason was a member of this Pro- 
visional Congress ; but it would seem that his presence in Mont- 
gomery could scarcely have been of the value it must have been 
at that time in his own State where it was evident that an im- 
portant battle was imminent. He did not take his seat in Con- 
gress durmg this session, which lasted only until May 21st, when 
Congress adjourned to meet in Richmond on July 20th. 

This interval was spent by Mr. Mason partly in Richmond 
and partly in Winchester, constantly in consultation, at both 
places with the civil and military authorities. Winchester was, 
at that time, a place of rendezvous for the troops that were con- 
stantly arriving from the Southern States, and early in May, 
General Joseph E. Johnston took command of the forces there 
assembled. He had been, in his youth, on terms of intimate 
friendship with Mr. Mason's youngest brother. Barlow Mason, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jgy 

and had been a frequent visitor at *Analostan Island ; he was, 
therefore, greeted with special warmth at Selma, and was urged 
to make it his home while in the neighborhood. Deeming it 
necessary to remain at " Headquarters " he would only agree 
that he and his staff would breakfast there every morning. 
General Bee, General Bartow, and other officers of the army then 
congregated in Winchester, frequently joined the party, and 
thus were gathered around the family board at Selma, men whose 
names soon became known throughout the civilized world, and 
whose memories will be cherished and honored by all future 
generations. 

That army was, in truth, unlike any other ever known ; its 
existence was due to the approach of an invading enemy; its 
object was to defend their rights as freemen, and to protect the 
sanctity of their homes ; in it the sons and brothers of the com- 
manding officers were found in the ranks, serving as privates, 
and it was composed chiefly of educated gentlemen, for the 
young men at college had all left their books to stand beside 
their fathers in defense of their mothers and sisters. Was it not 
reasonable such a cause should call forth the best men of the 
South? Did it not appeal to every instinct of honor among men? 
Consequently, much of the best blood of the Confederacy was 
poured out on the battlefield of Manassas on July 2ist, 1861. 
Among the many whose lives were there sacrificed was Mr. 
Mason's brother. Barlow, who has been already mentioned. 
Immediately upon the secession of Virginia, he had come from 
his plantation in Mississippi, to offer his sword in defense of his 
native State. Arriving at Selma one morning in June, he found 
his old friend " Joe Johnston " at the breakfast table, surrounded 
by his staff, and before the meal was over, it was arranged that 
he should become a member of that staff and serve as volunteer 
aide-de-camp. In this capacity he went into that memorable first 
battle of Manassas there to receive the wound that caused his 
death a few weeks afterwards. On July 24th, Mr. Mason took 
his seat in the Confederate Congress, then in session in Rich- 
mond; and the next day, he joined in the tributes there paid to 
the gallant men who had gained so great a victory at the cost 
of their own lives. He spoke with much feehng, as well he 
*The summer home of General John Mason. 



iqS 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



might, of Generals Bee and Bartow, with whom he had parted, 
only a few days before, when they came to Selma to say good- 
bye, at the last moment, before riding at the head of their 
respective commands from Winchester to Manassas. He also 
paid fitting tributes to the young men, some of them mere boys, 
from Frederick and the adjoining counties, who had fallen in 
this battle, among them were Peyton Harrison, Jr., David 
Barton and the two brothers. Holmes and Tucker Conrad, all 
of them sons of friends he had loved from his own youth ; per- 
haps he felt the more deeply from the fact that his own two 
brothers had gone through the same fight unhurt. His term 
of service in the Confederate Congress was very short, for on 
August 29th, he was appointed by the President to be " Special 
Commissioner of the Confederate States of America, near the 
Government of Her Majesty, the Queen of Great Britain and 
Ireland." 

It was thought important he should be in London at as 
early a day as possible, so he lost no time in arranging his 
affairs for his absence ; and on September 25th reported in Rich- 
mond ready to sail. In taking leave of his family, he gave them 
but few directions, said he relied confidently upon Mrs. Mason's 
discretion to guide her and her daughters in any emergency 
that might arise ; and felt fully assured they would be well and 
kindly cared for by his friends in Richmond, as well as by those 
in Winchester. He expressed the wish that the family silver 
should be given into the public treasury, to be melted into coin, 
if there should ever be need for it ; and urged, as his last reques't, 
that his wife and daughters would never allow themselves to be 
within the enemies' lines, but would make whatever sacrifices 
might be required to enable them to go, if necessary, from place 
to place until they reached the last village in the Confederacy. 
When urged to take with him one of his daughters, whose com- 
panionship, and whose assistance as an amanuensis was thought 
to be indispensable to his comfort, he said nothing could induce 
him to incur for his wife or daughters any possible risk of 
capture. " Moreover," said he, " the boys need their mother near 
them in case they should be wounded, and turning to his daugh- 
ters he added, " You, girls, will be of more value to me if you are 
with your mother to aid, to cheer and to comfort her, than you 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



igg 



could possibly be in any other way, no matter how great a 
pleasure your presence with me could ever prove." For his 
own safety he had no fear, nor had he any apprehensions or 
doubts as to the triumphant success of the Confederate Govern- 
ment in establishing and maintaining its independence. This 
confident assurance is evinced in all his letters and dispatches. 
Extracts from them tell the story of the next four years. 

" Charleston, S. C, October gth, 1861. 

" My Very Dear Wife: I expect to dispatch this to-morrow 
as my last missive before going. The hope now is of getting off 
to-morrow night under a plan of increased safety ; the Nashville 
is abandoned because of the difficulty of getting out, arising 
from the draft of water incident to her size. She will go, how- 
ever, on account of the Government and take the risk, probably 
to-night. We have, by authority of the Government chartered 
a smaller, but very safe steamer, called the Gordon, to take us 
either to Nassau (an island of the Bahamas off the coast of 
Florida), or to Havana, at our option. There is no risk of our 
being seen by the enemy as we go out, as we can run close to 
shore, and her speed is our security at sea. She can reach 
Havana in seventy hours, and then we go by the regular line of 
British steamers, the largest class of packets. I think thus, 
after much delay, we are on the right track ; but nothing is to be 
said of all this, until you hear that we are off, as you shall do 
by earliest telegram. 

"Friday, nth October. — There has intervened the usual 
delay in getting a steamer ready, but now writing to you at 
5 o'clock p. m., we are assured that we shall be off to-night as 
soon as the moon goes down at midnight, and we have made 
all preparations accordingly. Our boat is a strong " Line 
Steamer " well known in these waters as the fastest afloat, and 
we have chartered her, by authority of the Government at 
$10,000 to place us in Havana; so you see how valuable we are 
considered. Mr. Slidell's family and Mrs. Eustis accompany us, 
still I am satisfied that I did not take either of the girls, although, 
probably no real risk, I could not dismiss apprehensions. Tres- 
cott will telegraph you of our safe departure through the State 
Department. I am perfectly well and leave the country in high 



200 ^^^'^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

hope and buoyant. Again, my dear wife, invoking the care and 
blessing of Heaven on you and our dear children, 
" I am, as ever, most affectionately yours, 

"J. M. MASON." 

" At Sea, Off the Southern End of the Island of Abago. 
"(One of the Bahamas), October 14th, 1861. 

" Here we are, my dear wife, on the deep blue sea ; clear of 
all the Yankees. We ran the blockade in splendid style on 
Saturday morning at i a. m. ; a dark, rainy night such as the 
enemy thought no sinner would be abroad in, passed within sight 
of the lights of the blockading squadron, but I presume without 
being observed by them, as we made no noise that we were 
aware of; we had a light, rapid steamer and she went by under 
press of steam. So it was, we got clear, and now, having run 
about six hundred miles, are within four hours of Nassau (island 
of New Providence, Bahama), a British possession, which will be 
our first stopping place ; the steamer being under our control for 
the voyage. (You will see the Bahama group on the map im- 
mediately off the coast of Florida.) We stop at Nassau to learn 
about the English line of steamers, and where we had better join 
the next packet; thence to Havana, which is not more than 
twelve hours' run, and where (stopping a few hours at Nassau) 
we expect to be on Wednesday, the i6th. Could we have 
ordered everything it could not have been more propitious ; 
first, in the dark, rainy night to get out ; and since in the finest, 
calmest weather, our little egg-shell of a bark delights in. The 
first day out we had a spirited breeze, since then, the sea has 
been as calm and smooth as a lake, and yet so continues. The 
long heavy swell, however, which belongs to old ocean, made 
everybody on board sick, even including Slidell, but myself. 
I have never felt the slightest qualm, but had a good appetite and 
a clear head all the time. We have with us Mrs. Slidell and three 
daughters and son, aged fifteen, and Mrs. Eustis. The ladies did 
not appear for twenty-four hours and hardly yet have their feet 
under them. The sun is rather hot in these latitudes, but even 
in the absence of a breeze, the rapid motion of the boat gives us 
a fine and cool air. 

" We shall take the first English steamer we can find for 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 201 

England, but we may have to wait for some days in Cuba for her 
departure. Should this detention occur, we shall go out into the 
country to avoid risk of sickness in Havana, although, it is said 
that at this season the place is healthy. But having run the 
blockade successfully everything else is plain sailing, because 
under any foreign flag we are safe from molestation. Mr. Tres- 
cott promised to send you a telegram through the Department 
of State, and to write you by mail of Sunday if we got safely out, 
so that I am flattering myself you and our dear circle have heard, 
long ere this of our success. You must tell me in your next 
letter when you heard of our departure and what? I am curious 
to know how far those we left on shore could judge of our 
safety ; we had no one to send back. I write this to keep you 
au-courant of our movements across the ocean, and I shall finish 
it at Havana to go back by the steamer, lately the Gordon, 
now, the Theodora. To confuse the enemy, they change names 
here with little scruple. 

" Wednesday, October i6th, off the coast of Cuba. 

" We stopped at Nassau on Monday afternoon and found 
no steamer running thence except to New York ; made the coast 
of Cuba at 10 a. m. this morning, and soon fell in with a small 
Spanish steamer of war, whom we boarded and there learned 
that we were just too late for the English steamer, and should 
have to wait there three weeks. 

" We shall land at a small town, called Cardenas, about one 
hundred miles down the coast from Havana, and to avoid risk 
of fever shall go into the high and cool lands. At any rate, we 
are safe from the Yankees and henceforth under a foreign flag. 
I have pencilled this to go back by the Theodora, the nom de 
guerre of the Gordon. It will assure you and our dear children 
of my safety and will bear to you the love and affection of, my 
dear wife. Yours ever, 

" T. M. MASON." 

"Cardenas, Cuba., October i8th, 1861. 
" My Dear Wife: Landed safely at last, and have the Yan- 
kees at defiance. We got here the day before yesterday, escorted 
in from sea by a Spanish man-of-war we found cruising off the 



202 I'l^^ 0^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

coast, and who, finding who we were (we sent aboard to him), 
offered that grateful courtesy. I wrote you of my voyage fully 
from sea, and left it on board the ship. I shall send this to meet 
her at Havana, whither she proceeded after landing us. We 
have been received here with great kindness and hospitality. 
The local Governor and the principal men of the city have called 
on us, and tendered us every civility. We had determined to 
go to Havana (one hundred miles off) at once, but a Mr. 
Cazanova, who married a Virginia girl, hearing by dispatch to 
him by telegraph, on his plantation, of our arrival, hastened to 
town, and has, in the kindest and most urgent manner, insisted 
upon the whole party (some fifteen in number), becoming his 
guests during our stay on the island, and to carry it out engaged 
a special train of cars to carry us within two miles of his house. 
A plain unassuming gentleman, who has spent much time in the 
United States. We accept, of course, and I think I shall remain 
there two or three days and then go to Havana or rather to 
some healthy place in its vicinity. The weather here is rather 
zvarm, the thermometer ranging from 96° to 98°, and mosquitoes 
ad libitum, but I was never in better health, and it is said, the 
island is free from fever. We shall have full time for recon- 
noissance, as the British steamer, only making monthly trips, 
does not leave here until the 9th of November. Everything, as 
you may suppose, is new, or rather strange, and to our eyes 
outre, but the people know our mission and accost us kindly and 
without ceremony on the street, wishing us every success in our 
struggle at home and a safe voyage. If a chance offers to a 
Southern port, I will write again before we sail. 
" Best love to all our dear circle. 

" Yours, my dear wife, always, 

"J. M. MASON." 

"Havana, October 29th, 1861. 
" My Dear Wife: I have a chance to write to you and to 
the dear circle at home, by a small vessel to sail to-day, and it 
is thought will get into some port in the Confederate States. 
Still at Havana, and although everything is new, yet the in- 
tolerable heat forbids any enjoyment of it ; the thermometer in 
the day 98° and 100°, but the nights endurable; to walk a few 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 203 

hundred yards disables you for the day ; but there is little temp- 
tation to walk, the streets are so narrow ; and the sidewalks 
don't allow two persons to pass ; narrow balconies over the 
streets are so near that persons in opposite houses can converse 
without raising the voice. We have been received here with 
marked attention by the inhabitants, all of whose sympathies are 
with the Confederate States, from the Captain-General down. 
As an evidence, the ladies of Havana got up a large silk Con- 
federate flag and presented it to the ship that brought us here, 
and under which, floating from the masthead, she sailed out of 
the harbor on her way home ; we, of course, have not heard of 
her since, but our prayers for her safety went with her. The 
name, you will recollect, is the Theodora ; look for her arrival. 
As I wrote you from Cardenas, we went thence to the plantation 
of Mr. Cazanova, a very large sugar estate, where we were most 
sumptuously entertained from Saturday until Tuesday — then 
came here. The Cazanovas are people of great wealth, and, 
from our experience, of profuse hospitality ; the estate, we were 
told, yields two thousand hogsheads of sugar, and he has two 
coffee plantations adjoining, besides other estates in the island ; 
carriages, horses, and negroes without stint. There are many 
planters here of inordinate wealth ; saw on the estate twenty or 
thirty negroes just from Africa and plenty of Coolies (Chinese) 
as much slaves as the Africans. The gay season in Havana is 
just beginning, and we are invited to balls innumerable ; the 
Slidells don't go because they are in mourning, and I declined on 
many pretexts, the true cause, the heat. We called, of course, 
on the Captain-General, by appointment. He returned the call 
by a card. He begged we would command him for anything we 
desired. The fruit here is certainly exquisite ; on the plantation 
especially, we enjoyed it. The usage is, in the morning about 
seven, a cup of coffee, and after that oranges; breakfast a Id 
fourchette at 10 o'clock, stews, haricots, fish, etc., etc., and claret ; 
at I o'clock lunch of fruit all pulled fresh from the trees, pine- 
apples in perfection, oranges of every shape and flavor, and 
delicious bananas, guavas, yuccas, and a long catalogue of 
others, the beverage cocoanut water, from the cocoanut fruit ; 
dinner at five, and very recherche; and a dozen servants. We are 
to sail from here on the 6th of November, to meet the English 



204 ^^^^ ^^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

steamer at St. Thomas^ an island of the British West Indies, 
some eig^ht hundred miles off, and shall reach London about 
the 28th. I wrote a few days since, to your sister Anne by a 
steamer sailing for New York, and after I get to London, and 
have an address, will write to Henry about our affairs. Then 
too, my dear wife, I shall hope to have some accounts from 
home, for which. Heaven knows how much I long. 

" God bless and preserve you all is the prayer of yours, 
my dear wife, ever, 

" T. M. MASON." 

" United States Ship San Jacinto, 

" Off the Capes of Virginia, Nov. 15, 1861, 

" My Very Dear Wife: The date of this will show you that 
we have been captured and are on the way to New York ; the ship 
will put into Hampton Roads for coal. Captain Wilkes has been 
good enough to say that he will give this to the officers at Fort 
Monroe to take the chances of being sent to Norfolk by any flag 
of truce that may offer. We left Havana on the 7th inst. on 
board a British mail steamer bound for England, and on the 
next day, this ship fell in with us at sea, and Captain Wilkes, 
the commander, it seems, felt himself authorized to demand us 
from the English captain, and here we are. As to all questions 
arising from the circumstances attending our capture, it would 
not become me to discuss them here, as my letter will, of course 
pass under inspection. Mr. Eustis, Slidell, Macfarland and my- 
self were taken, the ladies proceeded on the voyage to England. 
Of course, there will be all sorts of conjecture in the newspapers 
concerning our capture and its consequences, but I have only to 
say, my dear wife, that you should not permit your mind to be 
affected by them, and draw no other inference from my silence 
concerning them except that I, of necessity, write under re- 
straint. 

" In the meantime I assure you and our dear ones at home 
that I was never in better health in my life, and in no manner 
depressed, as I beg you will not be. We have been treated with 
every possible courtesy by Captain Wilkes and his officers, and 
are guests in the cabin, I suppose we shall get to New York 
on Sunday or Monday next, the 17th or 18th, and in due time 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



205 



presume the papers will tell what disposition is made of us. 
I do not know whether I can write to you, but, if allowed, will do 
so, and may have it in my power to tell you through what chan- 
nel you can write. Macfarland will attend to your afifairs, and 
have no care about mine, which are ample. I have one great 
consolation always present that while I am deprived of the power 
of watching over and advising you, I feel entire reliance upon the 
efhciency and excellence of our children and the kind friends 
around you. Should you find the means of writing to me let me 
have full details of domestic, but nothing of public affairs. I can 
only add, my dear wife, my prayers for your safety and that of 
our loved ones at home. 

" Yours most affectionately, 

" J. M. MASON. 
" My love to Anna, Kate, and all our circle and friends." 

" Fort Warren, 29th November, 1861. 

" My Very Dear Wife: An officer returning South on 
parole enables me to write you more at length. Your first 
anxiety, I know, is for my health and comfort ; you and our 
dear children may be assured of both. 

" We four have two rooms and a closet attached, good beds ; 
and are allowed to get from Boston anything we want, and also 
have a good servant. We mess with the Maryland prisoners 
and officers of the army and navy confined here ; and I have 
never met a finer body of gentlemen. Our table is superintended 
by a committee of the mess; and besides, supplies ad libitum 
and daily from Boston, everything that is good and homelike 
comes to us from Baltimore, fine hams by the dozen, turkeys, sad- 
dles of mutton, and canvasbacks. Indeed we have a better daily 
table than any hotel affords ; and whatever wine or other luxuries 
we choose. We are at entire liberty in the building, which is 
very large, no espionage, and allowed to walk at pleasure within 
ample limits in the enclosure. Colonel Dimmick, who com- 
mands, and the officers under him always courteous and kind. I 
have supplied myself from Boston abundantly with warm cloth- 
ing and have, therefore, really nothing to complain of personally 
but the loss of liberty. We have a daily boat from Boston, seven 
miles off, which brings us all the newspapers and frequent letters 



2o6 ^J^E OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

from as far south as Maryland. My anxieties now are for the 
dear ones at home. In late letters I told you how to write to me, 
enclosing your letter open to'^General Benjamin Huger, Norfolk. 
Not a word have I had since yours to me at Charleston, of 30th 
September. I have had kind notes and offers of any personal 
service from friends in Boston ; and strangers in the States 
around send frequent supplies of turkeys and poultry to the 
prisoners. It is pretty hard, to be sure, to be seized and shut up, 
but beyond that nothing oppressive has been shown. In my 
last letter, I sent you some postage stamps of the United States 
to be put on your letters, send me a few of the Confederate States 
to be used on mine. Tell me of Kate and her children and 
whether Dorsey has heard anything of his concerns at home ; and 
where my boys are? and what you hear of *George? My best 
regards to our kind friends at home. 

" Of course, I can say nothing beyond personal matters. 

" Always hope for the best and pay no regard to the specu- 
lations and tracassories of the Northern press. Commending 
you and our dear ones, each by name, to the kind care of Him 
who watches over all, 

" I am, my dear wife, ever yours, 

" J. M. M." 

"Fort Warren, 3d December, 1861. 
"My Very Dear Wife: Your letter of the 21st November, 
with those of our dear children, came to me two days ago ; never 
were tidings from home more welcome. They not only assure me 
of your safety and welfare, but were all in the right spirit for the 
times. Before this, I hope, you will have received my two letters 
from here, and had your anxieties removed concerning what 
might pertain to my health and comfort. 

" Indeed I have nothing but the detention of my person to 
complain of; no privilege consistent with that is refused. That, 
to be sure, comprises a great deal to one who never before, 
since manhood, was under restraint. Indeed you might look 
the world over, and you would fand nowhere, in the same space, 
a finer body of gentlemen assembled, and we are allowed free 
intercourse. Besides army and navy officers, we have here, I 
*His son in Texas. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



207 



think, twenty-three members of the Maryland Legislature, the 
Mayor of Baltimore^ and the Police Commissioners of that city, 
of whom your cousin Charles Howard is one, and with him, 
his son F. Key Howard ; so have no concern about my health or 
want of society. We have all the newspapers daily, and any 
books we want are tendered us from Boston. 

" I must close ; there is a rule about the length of letters 
which I may have already transcended. Tell the girls they must 
consider my letters equally addressed to them, including M., 
with thanks for her kind and affectionate note. My best regards 
to our kind friends in Winchester. 

" Ever, my dear wife, yours, 

"J. M. M. 

" In my late letters I endorsed my name as prisoner, etc., on 
the envelope, it was to substitute a postage stamp in Virginia ; 
send me some. Don't think of joining me; even were it possible 
to get here, you would hardly be allowed to see me, certainly 
not to remain with me." 

" Fort Warren, 12th December, 1861. 

" I was gratified yesterday, my dear wife, by the receipt of 
yours of the 2d inst. with one from Johnny. Tell him, with my 
best love, that I congratulate him upon the good fortune he 
so richly has merited. I have little to tell you of the short and 
simple annals of our prison house, except that we are allowed to 
make ourselves very comfortable indoors, and, so far, the 
weather has not been inclement outside. We have ample space 
for walking and, as I have told you, a most agreeable set of 
gentlemen, our fellow-sojourners. 

" Mr. Falkner has been allowed to go to Virginia on parole ; 
he has promised to see you at Selma and tell you of my sur- 
roundings. 

" Can't you be a little more explicit about home matters? 
Do you get gas and coal? and if not have you good supplies of 
wood? and what substitute for gas? I get frequent notes from 
Teko, there being no interdict to the mail in the U. S. and the 
surveillance of no moment in her letters. You must give my 
best regards to each one of the servants and tell them how much 
gratified I am by your accounts of them, particularly to William, 



2o8 ^I^'^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

for his offer to join me here. We have here all the troops taken 
at Hatteras, N. C, and amongst them many whom we employ, 
for a perquisite, as attendants. The one with our party is very 
attentive and valuable. Send me extracts from Jemmy's letters 
so far as to show his spirit and temper, nothing farther. My 
best love to our dear daughters, each and every one. Let one, 
at least of them write whenever you do and this should be, at 
least, once a week ; I do not suppose such frequency would be 
objected to. 

" Ever, my dear wife, yours, 

''J. M. M. 

" Since writing the above, I have received dear V.'s and L.'s 
letters of the 21st November, sent through Mr. Dallas, but not 
a line from him. Thank V. and L. with my love." 

The next letter announces his release from prison, for which 
happy event he was indebted to the interference of the English 
Government. 

" Fort Warren, January ist, 1862. 

"My Dear Wife: Time before leaving the Fort for but a 

line. We are just going on board a steamer, to be placed, at 

sea, on board a British steamer for England. I am in perfect 

health and buoyant — will write by first chance — as you all must. 

" God bless you all. 

"J. M. M." 

This capture of the Commissioners, or as the incident is 
commonly known, the " Trent Affair," attracted, at the time, 
world-wide attention and interest, because it involved important 
questions of international law, the persons captured having 
been as much under the protection of the English flag while 
passengers on board an English mail steamer as they would have 
been in the streets of London. Consequently, the arrest was 
considered in England to be an insult to the English Govern- 
ment, and as soon as the " Trent " reached England and re- 
ported the affair to the Government, a special dispatch was 
sent, by the sloop-of-war " Rinaldo," to the British Minister at 
Washington (Lord Lyons), instructing him to demand that the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



20g 



four gentlemen, thus taken prisoners, should be immediate] y 
released and placed again under British protection. 

The scope of this narrative does not admit of any descrij)- 
tion of the excitement caused, by this incident, in both the 
United States and England. 

Mr. Mason left, among his private papers, a detailed account 
of his experience from the time of his departure from Charleston 
to his arrival in London. It has never before been published. 
and is now carefully copied from the original paper: 

" In September, 1861, pursuant to authority of a law of the 
Confederate States of America, I was appointed by the Presi- 
dent with the advice and consent of the Senate, as Special Com- 
missioner to the Government of England. 

" John Slidell, Esq., of Louisiana, was at the same time, and 
in like manner, appointed Special Commissioner to France. The 
Commissioners were invested with the usual diplomatic powers 
of Ministers Plenipotentiary. At that time the ports of the Con- 
federate States were under close blockade by the enemy. In 
order to facilitate their getting out of the country, the Govern- 
ment purchased at Charleston in South Carolina a fast steamer, 
which had theretofore run between that port and New York as 
a mail packet, called the ' Nashville,' and put her in command 
of Captain Pegram of the navy, with a naval crew. She was 
unarmed, the object being, as far as practicable, to ensure speed. 

" Mr. Slidell and I met at Richmond on the 24th of Septem- 
ber in that year (1861), and, after receiving our respective in- 
structions, proceeded to Charleston to embark, where we arrived 
on the 2d of October. Mr. Slidell was here joined by his family, 
consisting of Mrs. Slidell, two daughters, and son, a boy of 
twelve or thirteen years of age, and also by George Eustis, Esq., 
of Louisiana, who, with Mrs. Eustis, was to accompany him as 
Secretary of Legation. James E. Macfarland, Esq., of Virginia, 
accompanied me as Secretary of Legation to England. After 
much consultation with the naval officers and others best 
acquainted with the harbour of Charleston, we determined that 
the ' Nashville,' from her draught, made our safe passage of the 
bar, except under the most favourable concurrence of wind and 
tide, very uncertain. The harbour was at that time blockaded 
by three steamers, a frigate and sloop of war, all in full sight 



270 i'tFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



from the city, and some six or seven miles distant. Under these 
circumstances, as the Government had a great object in getting 
the Commissioners successfully off, Mr. Slidell and I advised 
tiiat, in lieu of the ' Nashville.' we should be allowed to charter 
the steamer ' Gordon,' a small river boat of unusual speed, to 
take us to one of the West Indian Islands, where we could meet 
the West Indian mail steamer for England. This was acceded 
to by the Government, and the ' Gordon ' was chartered accord- 
ingly to take us with our suites to Nassau, and if required to 
Havana, at the price of $10,000, the Government guaranteeing 
her at the value of $60,000 out and back. She drew but seven 
feet of water, was in all respects well found, and we were satis- 
fied that the contract was fair and reasonable. The arrangement 
thus made, everything was hastened for our departure, and very 
soon the ship was reported ready. We embarked on the night 
of the 1 2th of October; it had been a clear and bright day, 
the moon, which shone in the earlier part of the night, would 
disappear below the horizon at midnight. We were all on board, 
attended by a large party of friends ; the sky during the night 
had become overcast with clouds; at 12 o'clock precisely the 
order was given to cast loose from the moorings, friends ex- 
changed a hasty, and anxious farev/ell, with many an earnest 
wish for a prosperous voyage, and we were off. The absence of 
the moon and the presence of the clouds made it very dark, and 
to add to our good fortune, it began to rain, an accessary we 
had not counted on to facilitate our escape. The name of the 
steamer, I should have said, had been changed after the charter 
from the ' Gordon ' to the ' Theodora,' a practice much resorted 
to by those who run the blockade to puzzle any curious enquirer. 
The steamer proceeded at a moderate rate, keeping Fort Sumter 
between her and the enemy, for the first three miles, and during 
this time every arrangement was made to preserve perfect still- 
ness and quiet ; all lights were carefully extinguished : we were 
seated on the deck, malgre the rain, and before passing Fort 
Sumter even our cigars were relinquished. 

" Our speed had gradually increased as we advanced, and 
after passing the Fort the little ' Theodora ' was put to her 
utmost power. Although it continued to rain hard, there was 
little or no wind. The lights oti board the blockading ships 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2II 



came presently more and more distinctly before us, at first in 
front, then abreast, and then astern. We had passed the block- 
ading squadron, and manifestly without being observed or heard. 
Captain Lockwood, commanding the Theodora, and the pilots, 
said that we had passed within a mile and a half of the nearest 
ship, being enabled to hug the shore by reason of our light 
draught. It was a moment of intense excitement and anxiety, 
though comparatively but a moment. In less than an hour after 
we had passed Fort Sumter we were far beyond the reach of the 
blockaders, and had retired comfortably and confidently to our 
berths, nor did we hear anything more of the enemy from that 
quarter. Our plan being to intercept the British West Indian 
mail at the nearest island where it touched, we steered direct for 
Nassau and arrived off the port on the afternoon of the 14th. 
Communicating with the shore, we learned that the mail 
sterimers did not touch at that island, nor could we reach them 
at a point nearer than Havana. Thus without landing, and after 
but short delay, we proceeded on our voyage across the Bahama 
banks to Cardenas, the nearest port in the Island of Cuba. Pass- 
ing over the Bahama banks, we sailed for some eighty miles, 
witli no land in sight, and with the water ranging from only seven 
to eight or nine feet deep ; and this phenomenon was the more 
striking, because the coral bottom of uniform white made the 
water appear of unusual transparency, and of less than its real 
dejitli — thus we had for a long distance a full view of the bottom 
of the sea. At daylight on the morning of the i6th, we had the 
coast of Cuba in view, distance some eight or ten miles, and in 
view also, a steamer about midway between us and the coast, 
steering west along the coast, and distance some four or five 
miles. She was soon made out to be a ship of war, and under the 
Spanish flag — each vessel continuing on its course, she would 
soon have left us, but in a very short time the stranger put about 
and made directly to intercept us. This was the first steamer we 
had seen since we left Charleston, nor indeed had we met with any 
sail, except an occasional little schooner. A hurried consultation 
was held whether we should change our course, or wait his com- 
ing nearer, but the nautical men on board were so confident from 
his build, and other evidences, that he was bona-fidc a Spaniard 
that we boldly diverged from our course to meet him and ran up 



212 I'IPE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



the Confederate flag. When the two ships were in less than a 
mile of each other, the stranger again altered his course west- 
wardly. On this indication our flag was dipped, a salutation that 
was immediately returned, when we made a signal that we 
desired to speak him. The two ships then approached each 
other slowly, shutting off steam, when about a hundred yards 
apart. Mr. Slidell, who spoke the Spanish language, accom- 
panied by Mr. Eustis, then went aboard. 

" They returned in a short time and reported that it was a 
small Spanish war steamer cruising as a ' Guarda Costa,' com- 
manded by a young officer who had the manner and deportment 
of an urbane and accomplished gentleman ; that the Spanish 
captain reported that so far as he knew there was no Federal 
cruiser oflF the island. Mr. Slidell told him who we were, our 
mission and that we were bound for Cardenas as the nearest 
port in Cuba, but that, if he, the Spaniard, was bound for 
Havana, then some hundred miles distant, and would give us 
convoy we would go on to that port. The officer very courte- 
ously expressed his regret that his orders would not carry him 
so far down the coast, but that he would, with great pleasure, 
accompany and give us safe convoy to Cardenas ; an oflfer that 
Mr. Slidell accepted, and the ' Guarda Costa ' accordingly 
passed ahead and we followed in his wake, without further 
incident to Cardenas. 

" We anchored ofif the town of Cardenas in the afternoon 
of the i6th of October, and very soon were boarded by an 
officer from the Custom House, who said, according to port 
regulations neither passenger nor baggage could be landed with- 
out a permit from the Captain-General at Havana. He was 
very civil and polite after learning who we were. We told him 
that we had no cargo, that there was nothing to land but the 
Commissioners with their families and suites with their baggage 
— still he persisted that nothing could be landed but under a 
permit from Havana, and very courteously ofifered immediately 
to communicate by telegraph with the authorities at Havana, 
expressing his belief that an answer could be received in time 
to enable the party to land and sleep on shore, and he took his 
departure. It was soon understood in the city who were on 
board the steamer just arrived under the Confederate flag, and 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2IJ 



very soon several gentlemen came off in boats bringing with 
them very acceptable baskets of the tropical fruits. They 
learned our difficulty about landing, but said it was at least but 
a mere matter of form; that the permit would, of course, come 
from Havana, and that in advance of it we might safely land 
in our ship's boats, taking with us only such small parcels of 
baggage as might be convenient for the toilet of the night, and 
thus could not be questioned by Custom House regulation. The 
ladies of the party caught eagerly at the suggestion — they were 
very tired of the voyage and the discomforts of our small 
steamer, and, as they expressed it, could not resist the tempta- 
tion of the ample apartments of the promised hotel with its 
accessories. 

" They determined to go, and took little account of Custom- 
House etiquette — of course, some of the gentlemen went with 
them. They conformed to the observances suggested so far as 
to take with them only small traveling bags and other like 
appendages which could be carried in the hands of their atten- 
dants. Qtiand a moi, I did not choose to make any issue with the 
Custom-House regulations and, therefore, remained on board. 
Cardenas is comparatively a new town, with a good harbour 
and about one hundred miles distant from Havana, with which 
it communicates by railroad. Our little steamer ' Theodora,' 
after landing us, proceeded to Havana, and our plan was, after 
resting for a day or two at Cardenas, to go to Havana and wait 
there the sailing of the West India mail steamer for England. 
The local Governor of Cardenas called upon us the day after our 
arrival, and was very civil and courteous in his proffer of hospi- 
tahties, indeed we found the whole population of the city 
earnestly and warmly enlisted in the interests of the South. After 
remaining three days in Cardenas, we accepted the urgent and 
kind invitation of Mr. Cazanova to visit him at his plantation, 
which we could reach by a railroad, distant about thirty miles, 
on our way to Havana. This young gentleman it seemed, had 
been in the United States, and on one occasion a guest at a party 
at Mr. Slidell's in Washington, and upon the small claim so 
presented by him his earnestness could not be resisted. On the 
following day, we found, that to make the excursion entirely 
agreeable to the ladies, he had provided a special train to leave 



2j^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

at such hour as they might indicate. Arriving at the station, 
which was on the plantation, we found any number of volantes 
and saddle horses awaiting us. The Senora Cazanova, I found 
was a young lady from Frederick County in Maryland, married 
within the year, and whose sister was the wife of a near relative 
of mine in that State. It was a large sugar plantation of some 
three hundred slaves, one of several that belonged to the father 
of our host, — the old gentleman lived principally in Havana. 
We spent three days with great pleasure and interest, informing 
ourselves in plantation life and sugar planting in Cuba, and on 
the 22d, we went to Havana. 

" The West India mail line from England to Mexico we 
learned, touched Havana and was due on the return trip to 
England, on the 7th of November. Mr. Crawford, the British 
Consul, was the agent for this line at Havana, and we took 
our passage and registered our names, accordingly, with him. 
I should remark here that we were indebted to this gentleman 
for many acts of courtesy and hospitality. In the absence of 
any resident officer of the Confederate Government he called, on 
our part, upon the Count de Serrano, the Captain-General of 
Cuba, and expressed our desire to call upon, and tender to him 
our respects. The answer was that the Captain-General would 
receive us with pleasure the next day at 2 o'clock, but that for 
reasons that we could appreciate, it could only be in unofificial 
form. Mr. Slidell and I, with our respective secretaries, called, 
accordingly, the next day at the Palace at the hour named and 
were very kindly received — the conversation was only on gen- 
eral subjects including the progress and prospects of the war 
in regard to which, although not directly expressed, it was mani- 
fest that his sympathies were with us. The following day the 
visit was returned by his card. About the close of this month 
(October) the United States steamer ' San Jacinto,' Captain 
Wilkes, arrived at Havana and anchored in the harbour — it was 
said that she called for coal — she remained some two or three 
days and sailed, it was said, for the United States. 

" This ship was on her return from the coast of Africa, 
where she had been some two or three years, as part of the 
squadron on that coast. Captain Wilkes had been sent out, some 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



US 



six or eight months before, to relieve the officers in command 
bf that squadron, and to bring this ship home. Our presence in 
Havana and our mission to Europe as well as our purpose to 
embark in the mail steamer which was to leave Havana on the 
7th of November was well known in the city. We knew it had 
been spoken of and commented on by the Consul of the United 
States at Havana and thus would, of course, reach the ear of 
Captain Wilkes, beside which I had visits at my hotel from *two 
of the officers of that ship. Of course, in conversation with 
these gentlemen, I imparted nothing touching our plans or pur- 
poses but, in the manner above noted, it became fully known 
to Captain Wilkes that we were to embark in the mail steamer 
for England via St. Thomas on the 7th of November. When he 
sailed, some seven or eight days previous, it was announced in 
continuation of his voyage he had gone direct to the United 
States, nor did he leave behind a suspicion or intimation of a 
purpose to waylay us. 

" We left Havana on the morning of the 7th of Novem- 
ber in the English Royal Mail Steamer ' The Trent,' Captain 
Moir, for Southampton. England, via the Island of St. Thomas. 
' The Trent ' had touched only at Havana on her way from 
Vera Cruz in Mexico ; there were some eighty passengers, most 
of them Englishmen or from the English Colonies. On the fol- 
lowing day, the 8th, when passing along the old Bahama channel, 
the usual and direct course of the voyage, in sight of and about 
ten miles distant from the coast of Cuba, about mid-day a 
steamer was made out from the deck, distant in the haze some 
five or six miles without motion and directly across our path. 
As we advanced, the Captain and others, observing through their 
glasses, declared her a war steamer — she lay perfectly motionless 
with steam shut ofif and showed no flag. The Captain, eyeing 
her closely, reported that she lay in mid-channel in a position 
apparently taken to cut us ofif and that she must mean mischief — 
this was said to Mr. Slidell and myself, whom he had drawn 
aside on deck for the purpose. We continued directly on our 
course and without change of speed, when within a mile or a mile 



* The account given of these visitors has been omitted, since it con- 
tains nothing of public interest or history. 



2i6 ^^^^ ^^' J^MES MURRAY MASON. 

and a half the Captain of the ' Trent ' displayed his flag at the 
main and peak, very soon after which a shot was fired by the 
' San Jacinto ' across our bow — the flag of the ' Trent,' which 
had been continued up for several minutes and then lowered, 
was again raised, the ' Trent ' never checking her speed, or 
changing her course — when about a quarter of a mile distant, a 
shell was thrown from the ' San Jacinto ' again across her bow, 
which struck the water and exploded a short distance from her. 
Captain Moir then slackened his speed and shut off steam 
within speaking distance of the ' San Jacinto.' He hailed and 
enquired, 'What do you want?' The answer was, 'We '11 send a 
boat aboard.' During this time, I was sitting aft on the quarter 
deck waiting events, most of the passengers were on deck amid- 
ship, and amongst them were seated Mr. Slidell and his family. 
I sat still observing the movements on board the ' San Jacinto.' 
I should have stated above that the ' San Jacinto ' hoisted the 
United States flag for the first time when she fired the first shot. 
A boat put off from the ' San Jacinto ' and from the side opposite 
to us ; as she came around the stern of the ship, I saw that she 
was a large boat with a crew of some twenty men armed with 
cutlasses and pistols in their belts, I thought then for the first 
time with Captain Moir, that she ' meant mischief.' My first 
impression was to provide for the safety of our papers. I 
accordingly called to Mr. Macfarland and asked him to take the 
dispatch bag which contained my public papers, credentials, 
instructions, etc., and which was in my state-room, and deliver 
it to the mail agent of the' steamer, to tell him what it was and 
ask him to lock it up in his mail-room, and I told him at the same 
time to make the same suggestion to Mr. SUdell. I was seated 
on the quarter-deck at some distance from the rest of the pas- 
sengers and thus this direction was unobserved and unheard. 
Before the boat from the ' San Jacinto ' reached our ship. Com- 
mander Williams of the Royal Navy, who had charge of the 
mails on board, came to me where I was seated and reported that 
he had the dispatch bags of Mr. Slidell and myself locked up 
in his mail-room. ' Of which ' said he, ' I have the key in my 
pocket and whate\^er their objects may be they must pass over 
ray body before they enter that room.' I told him in a few 
words that the bags contained the public papers of Mr. Slidell 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2iy 

and myself and requested, if we were separated from them, that 
he would see to their delivery to some one of the Commissioners 
of the Confederate States, Messrs. Yancey, Rost, and Mann, 
who were then in London, which he promised faithfully to do. 
On our arrival at London, we found the bags with their con- 
tents unharmed in the possession of those gentlemen. When 
the boat from the ' San Jacinto ' reached the ' Trent,' the board- 
ing officer alone came on board, leaving the crew in the boat, 
and ascended to the upper deck where the passengers were 
assembled amidship. I could see from where I was seated that 
he was holding a conversation with our Captain, though I could 
not hear what was said. Mr. Slidell was sitting a little apart 
from the group in which were the ladies of his family, and from 
the glances interchanged between them I suspected that we were 
the subjects of discussion. Very soon Mr. Slidell rose and 
advancing toward the officer said in a tone that reached my ear, 
* I am Mr. Slidell.' I then immediately advanced to the group 
and near the boarding officer. At that moment he was in a dis- 
cussion, somewhat excited on the part of the latter, with Captain 
Moir. When near to him, he addressed me by name but with a 
manner perfectly respectful. He said, ' Mr. Mason, I am Lieuten- 
ant Fairfax of the United States ship ' San Jacinto,' and I am 
ordered by Captain Wilkes, who commands the ship, to take you 
with Mr. Slidell, Mr. Eustis, and Mr. Macfarland, and to carry 
you on board his ship.' My reply, ' Very well, sir, execute 
your orders.' He said, ' Will you go with me ? ' My answer, ' Cer^ 
tainly not unless compelled by force greater than I can over- 
come. I know my rights — I am under the protection of a neutral 
flag and will be taken from that protection only by force.' The 
Lieutenant said, ' I trust, sir, you will not require me to use 
force upon your person ; it would be the most painful act of my 
life to do so.' My reply, ' You must decide that for yourself. 
I can only repeat that I will not leave this ship unless compelled 
by a force which I can not overcome.' As I have said the 
whole deportment of the Lieutenant was respectful and forbear- 
ing. During our colloquy, which was overheard by the pas- 
sengers, they became very much excited and interjected many 
angry and defiant remarks. I had not heard the earlier con- 
versation with our Captain (presently referred to), but whilst 



2i8 LIFE OF JA.UE.S Ml RRAY MASON. 

this conversation proceeded, he more than once interposed his 
protest in the most decided manner, expressing his regret that 
his ship was unarmed, declaring that were it otherwise Captain 
Wilkes would never dare so g'reat an outrage upon his flag. 
Commander Williams too, the mail agent, advanced to Lieuten- 
ant Fairfax and addressed him pretty nearly as follows, in a 
calm and deliberate manner : ' I am an officer, sir, of the Royal 
Navy, as you will see from my uniform, and thus the only im- 
mediate representative of my Government on board this ship-^ 
in that character and speaking for my Government, I denounce 
your act, and that of your commanding officer as an infamous 
act of piracy. I am going directly to England and shall so report 
it to my Government.' Mr. Slidell bore his part in the conversa- 
tion pretty much of the same tenor as mine. To end the scene, 
I said to the Lieutenant, ' It is idle to prolong this conversation ; 
I have told you my determination, to which I adhere. You 
have abundant force at hand and it rests with you to use it.' As 
I have said we were on the upper deck ; the state-rooms were on 
the deck next below, and on that deck also was the gangway at 
the side of the ship. The Lieutenant descended to the lower 
deck to communicate with his boat. I went down also to go to 
my state-room. Mr. Slidell, with his family, also went down 
about the same time, and we were followed by most if not all the 
passengers. Before I left the upper deck, I observed two other 
large boats each with a crew of some twenty or twenty-five men, 
armed, and in one of them a squadron of marines passing from 
the ' San Jacinto ' to our ship. It appeared afterwards from the 
report of Lieutenant Fairfax, that apprehending resistance, he 
had, by signal, called for this additional force. When we reached 
the lower deck, Mr. Slidell went with Mrs. Slidell into his state- 
room which was near amidship and in full view of those stand- 
ing by, he remained there arranging with Mrs. Slidell matters 
that might be useful to her in Europe in the event of their abrupt 
separation. 

" The Lieutenant in the meantime had called on board and 
stationed on the lower deck in front of us some twenty or thirty 
sailors, armed with pistols and cutlasses, with the squad of 
marines having muskets with bayonets fixed ; the residue of his 
force remained alongside in their boats. Seeing our removal 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2IQ 



thus inevitable I asked the Lieutenant if I might go to my state- 
room and put up such portions of my hig.q;ag^e as was out of the 
trunks ; he repHed, at once, and courteously, in the affirmative. I 
was absent but a few minutes — when I returned I found Mr. 
Slidell still in his state-room, where he appeared to be in con- 
versation with Mrs. Slidell at the end farthest from the door. His 
eldest daughter (quite a young lady), stood in the doorway 
with her arms extended grasping each postern, thus obstructing 
the entrance, whilst the Lieutenant stood in her front earnestly 
but respectfully remonstrating with her and asking permission 
to pass. I paused for a moment at the door and said to her I 
thought she had better go into the state-room and leave the 
difficulty to be settled by her father and myself, but the faithful 
daughter stood equally silent and unmoved, in the vain hope 
that she could thus protect her father ; she appeared not to hear 
a word that was addressed to her. To end the distressing scene 
Mr. Slidell had gotten out of a window which opened on the 
deck in the rear of and unseen by his daughter. The Lieutenant 
then said, ' Gentlemen, I hope you will now go with me.' I 
replied, ' I have only to reiterate what I said at first, I will not 
leave the ship unless compelled by force greater than I can over- 
come.' The Lieutenant then took hold of my person, as did 
three or four of his men by his order, and by like order they 
laid hands upon Mr. Slidell. We then said we had no alterna- 
tive but to yield to force and would accompany him ; those hav- 
ing hold of us released their grasp and we proceeded to the 
gangway (our Secretaries, Messrs. Eustis and Macfarland, ex- 
pressing their purpose to be guided by us, went with us), accom- 
panied by the Lieutenant. Miss Slidell was not aware that her 
father had left the state-room, which she thought she still 
guarded, until she saw him moving olif in custody when, with a 
distressing cry, she fell into the arms of her mother. As we 
moved ofif to the gangway, our fellow passengers, who were 
vehemently excited and were venting bitter execrations at what 
was passing, pressed upon us in a body, when the marines pre- 
sented their guns at a charge as if to intercept them — the move- 
ment was so marked that I paused and said a word or two to 
them expressive of our thanks for the interest they manifested in 
our behalf, and pointing out to them the hopelessness of any 



220 ^^^^ ^^ JAMES MUliliAY MASON. 



attempt at interference on their part. We descended the steps 
of the gangway and got into the boat, which by order of Lieuten- 
ant Fairfax (who remained on board the * Trent '), at once pushed 
off and rowea for the * San Jacinto.' As we left the ship, the 
Lieutenant said to us he would see that our baggage was all 
sent on board. Arriving at the ' San Jacinto ' we had to clamber 
up by the elects, at the side of the ship, with the aid of the 
pendant ropes, which, as the sea was a little rough, and not being 
practised mariners, we found no easy task. As we stepped on 
the deck. Captain Wilkes, who was standing near the gangway 
touched his hat and said, ' Captain Wilkes, gentlemen, who 
commands this ship ; will you please to walk into the cabin.' We 
found the men at quarters, the guns run out with tompions oflf, 
and everything ready for action. I replied to Captain Wilkes's 
invitation, ' We are brought on board this ship by your order, 
and against our will, and of course must abide your direction.' 
He again said, ' Please to walk into the cabin.' The cabin was 
on the upper deck, and we entered it attended by the Captain. 
He said, " Gentlemen, I wish to make you as comfortable as I 
can on board my ship, but regret to say there are but two 
state-rooms, which can be occupied by Mr. Slidell and Mr. 
Mason. Mr. Eustis and Mr. Macfarland will find accommodations 
in the ward-room, where we will do the best for them we can.' 
He then called in his steward and said, ' Steward, you will under- 
stand that the cabin and all the stores belonging to it, are at the 
command of these gentlemen, and you will obey their orders 
accordingly.' He then left the cabin and we remained in it. 
Through the windows of the cabin, we could see the passengers 
of the ' Trent,' clustered on deck, at the side of the ship, and the 
boats flying between — after some time Captain Wilkes again 
came in, and said, ' Gentlemen, your baggage has been brought 
on board ; will you please to come on deck and see if it is all 
right? or if any stores that you desire to have, are left behind.' 
On examination we found the baggage all there, but some little 
parcels of our stores were not ; this was reported to Captain 
Wilkes, when a boat with an officer, bearing a memorandum 
from us, was despatched to bring them and they were brought 
accordingly. I should state also that on leaving the ' Trent,' 
Captain Moir desired the officer commanding the boat to enquire 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. 221 

of Captain Wilkes, whether he should send any stores for the 
convenience of the passengers taken away and what? I did not 
hear the reply of Captain Wilkes, but there was sent from the 
' Trent ' amongst other things, some dozens of sherry, with 
pitchers and basins, and other conveniences for the toilet. I 
note these humble appendages, as the narrative may hereafter 
refer to them. Learning that everything we desired was on 
board. Captain Wilkes gave the order for the ship to proceed 
on her course, and the ' Trent ' was allowed to depart. 

" I subjoin, in a note, a letter addressed to Captain Wilkes, 
soon after we were taken on his ship, by my fellow voyagers 
and myself, containing a narrative of the facts attending our 
capture, with his reply. We thought it safe to put this on record 
contemporaneously — the concluding paragraph, requesting that 
he would send it, with his report to his Government was tenta- 
tive only, but successful as shown by his reply. His official 
reports, however, of the afiFair showed no material discrepancy 
between the version of the boarding officer and our own. 

" The two ships proceeded on their way in opposite direc- 
tions, ours proceeding to the northward. We made the land first 
on the coast of Georgia, and ran in, within two or three miles, 
continuing up the coast ; the reader may imagine our feeling, 
at the near view of our Southern soil from the deck of our 
prison ship. The coast was low and penetrated everywhere by 
inlets and conduits from the sea — the weather was calm, the 
sea tranquil, and our ship proceeded at no great speed, at from 
two to three miles from the land. At one time we could make 
out a small steamer, proceeding inland up and parallel with the 
coast. In the occasional depressions of the land, we could see 
her hull, but her course was generally indicated by her smoke. 
At another time we passed very near and spoke a British war 
steamer, going in an opposite direction ; she was reported as her 
Majesty's ship ' The Steady.' We were standing on deck and 
heard the hail and reply — another trying incident to a captive, 
especially to one made a prisoner in a manner insulting to the 
flag which 'The Steady' bore — and here by way of episode, and 
not as a prophet after the fact, which I challenge the rather, as I 
vouch a witness. Walking to and fro on the decks of the ' San 



222 ^^^'^' ^^' JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

Jacinto ' with Mr. Macfarland, on the day after our capture, I 
reasoned out each subsequent event as it afterwards happened. 

" My knowledge of the principles of public law, assured me 
that the act of Captain Wilkes could never be sustained, and 
I felt equally certain, that the demand of England would be 
categorical, and with no room for evasion. 

"I said to Mr. Macfarland, the report of this occurrence in 
England, to be made when the ' Trent ' arrives, will produce a 
profound sensation. A sentiment of public indignation will be 
aroused, which nothing can resist, and no ministry could live 
an hour, which did not fully respond to it. I said it would be 
made by England a very grave occasion — that a note would be 
written at the Foreign Office to the British Minister at Wash- 
ington, setting forth the facts and requiring immediate repara- 
tion — and further, that the Minister would be instructed by an 
unofificial note to notify the Secretary of State of an early day, 
limited for the answer — with further instructions, if the demand 
was not unconditionally complied with, that he should demand 
his passports, and return with his Legation, forthwith to Eng- 
land ; that the note would be expressed in the most courteous 
terms, but would be borne by a messenger of the highest grade 
in diplomatic intercourse. That the demand for reparation 
would be, that the wrong-doer should put things back where 
he foimd them, when the wrong was committed, which of course 
would require that we should be put back under the British flag. 
History will tell the rest. 

" We proceeded slowly up the coast, the weather continu- 
ing calm, our first stopping place being in the midst of the 
blockading fleet oiif Charleston, just one month after we had suc- 
cessfully evaded it — we could see our noble flag flying over Fort 
Sumter, the spires of the Churches in view of the unaided eye, and 
with glasses, every part of the city could be made out. It was a 
sore trial to be thus near, without the means, even of com- 
munication. Commodore Wilkes visited the flag-ship, then the 
* Congress,' which was very near to us. On his return, he re- 
ported the battle which had occurred but three days before, in 
the harbour of Port Royal at Hilton Head, between the enemy's 
fleet and our extemporised defences at that point. The ' Con- 
gress ' was one of the largest frigates in the Yankee Navy — had 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



223 



borne a conspicuous part in the action and, as Captain Wilkes 
reported, had sustained the heaviest loss in killed and wounded, 
yet there she lay, as buoyant, and apparently as unharmed, as if 
she had never received a shot, although she had received a great 
many from guns of heavy calibre at short distance. I remarked 
this to Captain Wilkes, who said that such large ships were so 
strongly built, that they could stand a great deal of battering. 
Yet this same ship a few months afterwards was sunk in Hamp- 
ton Roads, by a few well directed shots, from the iron clad 
' Merrimac,' carrying down with her. more than a hundred of 
her killed and wounded. We remained of¥ Charleston a few 
hours, and then proceeding North, still in calm weather, entered 
the Capes of Virginia, and anchored in the midst of a Yankee 
fleet ofif Fortress Monroe, on the evening of the 15th of Novem- 
ber. We put in here, it was said, for coal, and here for the first 
time since our capture, Captain Wilkes had the opportunity of 
communicating with his Government. He sent ofT dispatches, 
as we understood, immediately on his arrival, by a special 
messenger. 

" We anchored near the Fortress and the Captain landed 
soon after our arrival. General Wool I knew, was then in com- 
mand there, and General Huger in command at Norfolk, then 
in our possession on the opposite side of the roads. Our arrival 
would bring the first news of our capture, and I was very 
anxious, as far as I could, to relieve the apprehensions of my 
family. I asked Captain Wilkes if there would be any objection 
to his bearing a letter from me. to my wife, to be delivered to 
General Wool with a request that he would send it by a flag, 
over to Norfolk, with a note to General Huger — that of course, 
both the letter and note, should contain nothing but information 
of what had occurred, and be open for their perusal. Captain \\ . 
assented to it, and the notes were written accordingly. He 
brought a civil message back from General Wool, that the letter 
and note should be sent over to Norfolk the next day, and that 
this was done, was shown by subsequent information, that on 
the day that General Huger received them, he communicated 
their contents by telegraph, to President Davis at Richmond, 
and a letter in reply, from Mrs. Mason to me at F'ort Warren, 
showed that mine to her had been received, in regular course of 



22^ I^If'E OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



mail. I should here remark, that from the time of our capture, 
the deportment of Captain Wilkes toward us, was of marked 
attention and courtesy — thus when landing for the first time at 
Fortress Monroe, he asked if there was anything to be procured 
there which we would like to have, in the way of stores or other- 
wise? During his absence, we had directed the Steward to order 
some barrels of oysters, to be sent on board for us, which was 
done, and when we asked for the bills, were told that Captain 
Wilkes had directed them to be paid by his Purser. It is due to 
Captain Wilkes to say this, considering the relations we held to 
each other. 

" We had no communication with, nor did we see any 
person from the shore. Having obtained a supply of coal, the 
ship proceeded on the next day to New York, the destination 
announced to us, when we were taken on board. We had still 
calm and smooth weather, and we entered the bay of New York 
at an early hour in the evening — the night was dark and rainy — 
Mr. Slidell and I were seated in the cabin about 9 o'clock play- 
ing a game of backgammon, when the headway of the ship was 
suddenly stopped, and Captain Wilkes immediately left the 
cabin, and went on deck. We continued undisturbed at our 
backgammon. Very soon afterwards Captain Wilkes returned to 
the cabin, and the ship again got under weigh. He reported, 
' Gentlemen, we are not to land at New York — a steamer from 
the city has intercepted us with an order from the Secretary of 
State, that you be taken to, and landed at Fort Warren, in the 
harbour of Boston, and the ship has changed her course accord- 
ingly.' He further told us, that a deputy marshal from New- 
York, with an assistant, had been placed on board to accom- 
pany us. We received the communication without remark, and 
continued our backgammon; it amounted only to imprisonment 
at Fort Warren, instead of Fort Lafayette, about which we were 
indifferent. Proceeding still northward, and eastward, up the 
coast, in the next two days, the barometer with other marine 
prognostics showed evident signs of unsettled weather, and it be- 
came too, most uncomfortably cold, there being no fire, or 
means of making one, in the cabin. To remedy this. Captain 
Wilkes supplied the cabin with hot shot, the largest he had on 
board, heated to a red heat in the furnaces of the ship, and 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 22^ 

brought in resting in large tubs of sand, it was a good device, 
and by renewing them from time to time the cabin was kept 
comfortable. Our Captain, proceeding along this inhospitable, 
and in winter, tempestuous coast, with great caution, on the 20th 
put into Newport, Rhode Island, to avoid an impending gale 
from the northeast, and we laid there at anchor that night, and 
part of the next day. Here again Captain Wilkes availed himself 
of the opportunity to replenish his stores, and provided for our 
comforts in the cabin by a stove put up there, although to admit 
it, it was necessary to cut a hole in the roof to provide a way for 
the stove pipe. This stove was a great addition to our comfort, 
for the weather had become extremely cold. It is again due 
to Captain Wilkes to say that he was really sedulous, and left 
nothing undone to contribute to our comfort, or to make our 
condition as agreeable as was consistent with our position. He 
gave us the entire command of the cabin, and of the quarter- 
deck, asking that we would not consider the ordinary rules of 
the ship, as extended to us — those rules were, that lights were to 
be extinguished at a certain hour, and that none should smoke 
on the quarter-deck. He begged that we would continue our 
whist at our pleasure at night, in the cabin, and smoke our 
cigars where we pleased on the deck. I desire to do full justice 
to Captain Wilkes, and the rather as his act in our capture will 
be condemned in the history of the times. I have said that he 
gave to Mr. Slidell and myself the only two state-rooms con- 
nected with his cabin — the largest was that which he occupied. 
I protested earnestly against displacing him, and we com- 
promised at last by having a curtain extended across, so as to 
divide it in half, he occupying that part which contained his 
secretary and wardrobe — I had his bed, and he resorted to a cot, 
swung at night in the cabin. As a host, he certainly had a care 
for his guests. We lay off Newport in the stream. Captain 
Wilkes landed, but we of course had no communication with the 
shore. We sailed again on the 21st; the weather still dark and 
lowering, keeping near the coast. On the evening of the 22d, 
there being every indication of a gale, we put into * Holmes' 
hole,' or ' Martha's Vineyard,' in Massachusetts, and anchored 
for the night. This anchorage is completely land-locked, and 
is a favorite resort in doubtful weather for vessels on that coast. 



226 I^IFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



We found a large fleet of small craft at anchor, and during the 
night they were joined by many others. In some way, it became 
known that the Southern envoys, recently captured on the high 
seas, were on board the newly-arrived man-of-war. Immediately 
all the vessels were decorated with their flags — a salute was 
fired from the shore, and a deputation waited on Captain 
Wilkes, tendering their congratulations, and with them more 
substantial evidences in the form of supplies. Having taken 
on board a pilot, we again got under weigh. About daylight, 
on the morning of the 23d, in due time we rounded Cape 
Cod, and soon after dark on the same day, anchored off Fort 
Warren, in Boston harbour. Captain Wilkes telling us that 
he would land at the Fort in the morning, and learn what orders 
would be taken for our reception. The harbour of Boston is 
a roadstead open to the sea, from which the city is some ten 
or twelve miles distant. In the estuary are many islands, on 
one of which, distant about eight miles from the city, is 
situated Fort Warren. It is one of the largest fortresses on 
the seaboard of the United States, and occupies nearly the 
entire island, there being but a small fringe of shore outside the 
walls of the fortress. 

" Being direct from Havana, we had amongst our stores 
intended for use in Europe, several thousand segars, which we 
thought it possible the authorities might require should be 
landed in Boston, either to pass through the Custom-House, 
or as it might be, confiscated. We stated the matter frankly 
to Captain Wilkes, who said at once, they should be taken, as 
they really were, as part of our luggage, and that he would see 
to it. On the next morning when we assembled at breakfast 
in the cabin about 9 o'clock, the captain reported that he had 
landed soon after sunrise, and had an interview with Colonel 
Dimmick, the commanding officer of the fortress, and that it 
was arranged that a steamer should be sent at 11 o'clock to take 
us to the fort in charge of an officer to attend us. He reported 
further in reference to our questions about the segars, that 
Colonel Dimmick said he would make no inquiry about our 
stores, but whatever was landed with us from his ship would 
be treated as belonging to us. 

" Before leaving the ' San Jacinto,' I must return to the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



222 



marshal of New York, who had been put on board when we 
were intercepted, entering the harbour of New York. We 
had not seen or heard of him or his assistant, after their pres- 
ence on board had been reported to us ; we learned, however, 
afterwards, through our secretaries, that they became very 
seasick after getting to sea, and seldom appeared on deck. 
After Captain Wilkes announced their coming on board, we 
asked whether we were to consider ourselves as transferred to 
their custody? to which he replied, 'Certainly not; why they 
were put on board I do not know. They brought an order 
requiring me to receive them. I told them, however, they could 
have nothing to do with you gentlemen, whilst you were on 
board my ship.' Nor did I ever see them, or hear farther of 
them whilst we remained on board. On the morning of the 
24th of November, a small steamer put off from Fort Warren, 
and ran alongside the ship. Our baggage and stores had all 
been got ready, and at 11 o'clock A. M., we left the ship for 
Fort Warren. Lieutenant Fairfax attended us, and on board 
the steamer. Lieutenant Buell, of the Army of the United States, 
was introduced as the officer to receive us. On landing we were 
conducted through a sally-port into the fortress, and thence to 
the quarters of the commanding officer, Colonel Dimmick. 

" It was Sunday when we landed at Fort Warren, and arriv- 
ing at the Colonel's quarters, it was reported that he was at church 
but that an officer had gone to summon him. He appeared very 
soon, and apologized for his absence by saying he thought the 
service would be over before we landed. We learned afterwards 
that the public worship which the Colonel had attended was held 
every Sunday in a room appropriated for the purpose, one of the 
'prisoners of State' officiating who was a clergyman named North. 
He lived in Jefferson County, Virginia, near Harper's Ferry, on a 
farm which he owned, and had been captured some time before, in 
a foray of the enemy's cavalry. Nothing was alleged against 
him, but that he lived in a suspicious neighborhood. He was 
a plain and unsophisticated man, had committed no offence 
whatever against any person or State, yet he was taken from his 
family, carried more than five hundred miles from home, impris- 
oned without cause, and released, even without apology. I 
attended his service one Sunday, and found that amidst all 



228 ^^^^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

this, he made no distinction in his prayers between friends and 
enemies. 

" Colonel Dimmick received us with great courtesy, said he 
had given orders, early in the morning, to have our quarters got 
ready, but found, as the rooms had to be scrubbed, it might not be 
quite dry, and begged that we would occupy his quarters until ours 
were ready. Colonel Dimmick was an officer of the old army, and 
was in everything thoroughly a gentleman. Whilst thus in- 
stalled in the Colonel's quarters, 'ecce ittermn crispinus,' the 
New York marshal again appeared. Colonel Dimmick, as if 
by no means satisfied with his errand, announced that the 
marshal of New York was at the door, and said he was ordered 
to search our baggage. Said he, ' Gentlemen, I hope you will 
understand that I have nothing to do with it.' We told him 
by all means to admit the marshal. I then, for the first time, 
saw him, a common and vulgar-looking man, exhibiting the 
shy subserviency which became the office he had to discharge. 
We at once gave him our keys, and requested our secretaries 
to point out to him our trunks, lying in the hall. He returned 
the keys soon after; of course he found no papers, and I must 
do him the justice to say that his examination was conducted 
with due regard to our assurance that our baggage contained 
nothing worthy of search. 

" Whilst at the Colonel's quarters, Lieutenant Buell, who 
was the executive officer, told us the rules required that we 
should deposit with him all money, drafts, or cheques, in our 
possession ; that we were allowed each to retain twenty dollai s, 
which we might expend as we pleased, without account, and 
when expended, he was authorized to give us each twenty dollars 
more. He said that whatever we deposited would be placed to 
our credit on his books, which would always be open to our 
inspection. In truth, we had very little money, not more than 
two or three hundred dollars between the two Commissioners 
and the two secretaries. Our funds were all in bills upon Eng- 
land. We complied, however, with his demand, which was 
made in a manner respectful and deferential. We remained in 
the Colonel's quarters an hour or two, until it was reported to 
us that our apartment was ready for us, when Colonel Dimmick 
led the way to accompany us. Soon after leaving his door, we 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 22g 

were greeted by our fellow-prisoners in crowds, who were 
assembled to intercept us on the way. I recognized among 
them a body of old and attached personal friends, chiefly from 
Maryland, with a few from other States. 

" The room to which we were conducted was one of a 
series built of officers' quarters. The fortress was circular 
in form, and along the inner walls a number of stone houses 
were erected, extending well around the inside of the fort, 
intended as barracks for the garrison. We found in the fort 
some twelve or thirteen hundred prisoners, of whom about 
an hundred and twenty were called prisoners of State, mean- 
ing those who were arrested for political reasons ; some eight 
or nine hundred prisoners of war, including officers recently 
before captured at Fort Hatteras, in North Carolina, with other 
military and naval officers captured during the war. Of the 
State prisoners were some twenty or thirty members of the 
Legislature of Maryland, who had been arrested on the first 
day of the meeting of that body, to prevent a quorum assem- 
bling. Mr. Slidell and I found in this class of prisoners a num- 
ber of old and valued friends, by whom we were most cor- 
dially welcomed. Our quarters consisted of a single room 
about eighteen feet square, having a small bed in each corner, 
and attached to it a small closet, which contained our luggage, 
with the furniture for a very simple toilet. Leading from this 
closet was a recess in the walls of the fort, terminated by a loop- 
hole. This accessory of space enabled us to have some shelves 
put up for other storage, to the relief of our sleeping room. 
That room was our only apartment, where we received com- 
pany by day and slept at night, but restricted as such quarters 
were, we soon found that we were far better off than the rest of 
our fellow-prisoners, who were crowded eight or nine together, 
in a room of like size as ours. Under the regulations of the 
prison we were allowed the freest intercourse with each other 
during the day, and to visit at pleasure the range of buildings 
in which we were lodged, being altogether on one side of the 
fortress, and in front of these buildings, in a space three hun- 
dred feet long, by thirty feet wide, guarded by a line of sentinels, 
we were allowed to take exercise ; thus our communica- 
tion with each was unrestricted during the day. Retreat was 



2^Q LIFE OF JAMES MURRAT MASON. 

beat at five o'clock, and then each prisoner was required to 
retire to his quarters, not again to leave them until the next 
day, to ensure both of which an officer visited each room after 
retreat, and a sentinel was placed at the door. The command- 
ing officer, however, would give special permits to visit at night 
until ID o'clock, when it was required that all lights should be ex- 
tinguished. A special exemption, however, was extended to our 
room, where visitors were allowed to remain, and the lights to 
burn until ii o'clock — this was done, not at our request, but 
at the suggestion of some of our fellow-prisoners, who joined 
us at whist in the evening. Most of our fellow-prisoners had 
been in the fortress for some time, and were thus domesticated. 
They were allowed, as we were, only the prison fare, which, 
in perpetuam memoriam to the credit of the Government of the 
United States, I record here from the memorandum given to 
me there : 

Rations to the Prisoners at Fort Warren. Per Diem : 
Twenty-two ounces of flour, twelve ounces bacon, one and 
a half ounces coffee, two ounces sugar, one ounce salt, one gill 
vinegar, and one-half pound potatoes. But some thirty or 
forty of them had formed a mess, and the Colonel had kindly 
assigned them a large room in the barracks, as a mess-room 
detached from our other quarters. As newcomers, we were 
invited to join this mess. The room was large enough to 
accommodate the tables, and, being oblong, to allow the cook- 
ing to be done at the farther end. So whatever the supposed 
annoyance of the cooking, our dinners were served hot. Our 
predecessors had obtained cooks^ with their attendants from 
Boston, and with the markets in which city they had established 
a daily, and well constructed intercourse. A steamer came every 
day to the fort from Boston bringing the mails and supplies for 
the garrison, which bore equally, orders from the prisoners 
sanctioned by the executive officer. Our table was thus well 
supplied, but not alone from the markets at Boston ; almost 
every day our fellow-prisoners from Baltimore received large 
stores from their families and friends there, including all the 
delicacies of the season, canvasback ducks, terrapins, and oysters 
from the waters of the Chesapeake, and in great profusion. 
Our friends in Baltimore sent like welcome presents to Mr. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 231 

Slidell and me, and as Christmas approached, he and I received 
a very large box filled with the viands appropriate to that festival, 
from ladies in Hagerstown, and the adjoining county in Mary- 
land. And here I must record, too, that a lady of Portland, in 
Maine (whose narhe I may give in a note when the war is over), 
sent to me for our Christmas dinner, a very large box, filled with 
the like material — everything that could make a substantial and 
luxurious dinner was in that box, and in quantity to serve a hun- 
dred men — so abundant was it that, after taking out a few things, 
the rest was turned over to the North Carolina troops. 

" This excellent lady I have never seen but once. Some 
four or five years before, being at Boston, I had gone with 
General Pierce, then late President of the United States, and 
a little party, to visit the White Mountains in New Hampshire. 
There we met this lady and spent the evening in her company, 
introduced by General Pierce. In a very kind note accom- 
panying the box, she referred to the acquaintance thus formed, 
expressed her sympathy in my captivity, and on behalf of her- 
self and other ladies of Portland, whom she named, asked 
our * acceptance of the contents of the box, to improve our 
Christmas dinner.' 

" Our life in the fortress, of course, afforded no great 
variety of incident — we were allowed to receive letters passing 
under the inspection of our jailers, and thus I heard two or 
three times from home. Being also allowed to receive the 
newspapers, we had every day the daily journals from Boston, 
New York and Philadelphia, with the English papers and 
periodicals. Our prison life was, of course monotonous ; now 
and then we could welcome a newcomer, but very seldom could 
we take leave of one departing. 

" On the first day of December, the Congress of the United 
States met, and on that first day, the House of Representatives, 
by a unanimous vote, adopted a resolution requesting the Presi- 
dent to have the writer of this memoir by name placed in a 
dungeon, and treated as a felon — there to remain as a hostage, 
to answer for the life of a Federal officer then held as a hostage 
in the Confederate States, in like manner, to answer for the life 
of a captain of a Confederate privateeer, who had been tried 
and convicted as a pirate in the Federal Courts at Philadelphia. 



2^2 ^I^^ 02^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

Such was my first greeting by the Federal authorities as their 
prisoner. On the second day of the session, a like resolution 
was unanimously passed by the House, on behalf of Mr. Slidell. 
Such was the spirit of the mob at our capture, and the House 
of Representatives was the excerpt of the mob. This, of course, 
will pass into history — it resulted that it was at last a mob 
extravagance. The President, so far as we knew, took no 
account of it, nor did we hear anything more of it. I record 
it here as an exemplar of those entrusted with power by the 
people. Another incident should be noted : The State pris- 
oners were one day formally notified by the Governor of the 
fortress to be in their rooms at a given hour to hear an order 
from the Secretary of State, William H. Seward, a name that 
would go with infamy to posterity, were it not rescued from 
such elevation by contempt. The order was one prohibiting 
the prisoners ' from having any communication with counsel, 
upon pain of such communication being made the cause of 
prolonged imprisonment.' Time glided on. I never doubted 
what the action of England must be upon our capture ; from my 
knowledge of public law, I was satisfied and said so to those 
around me, however anxious England might be to avoid a 
quarrel, this must be made a fighting issue, and that no 
diplomatic delays would be allowed. It was an unmixed ques- 
tion of national honor. England had never been recreant. I was 
satisfied that the demand would be that the wrongdoer would be 
required to repair the wrong, that is to say, that the prisoners 
should be put back under the safeguard of the British flag. All 
this was a subject of daily discussion in our prison circles, as my 
fellow-prisoners will warrant, should this ever meet their eye. I 
never doubted what England would do — what the United States 
would do when the demand was made, was a theme for more 
extended speculation. 

" The official report of the capture brought a highly com- 
mendatory letter to Captain Wilkes from the Secretary of the 
Navy, who said the act had the ' Emphatic approbation ' of the 
Department. The press of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, 
each vied with the other in laudation of the act in capturing the 
' Rebel emissaries.' Captain Wilkes was feted at Boston and at 
New York, where he paused in his ' progress,' and the House 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



233 



of Representatives passed a resolution voting him a sword, 
and the thanks of Congress. History will record the events 
attending this capture as a most extraordinay lapse in the career 
of a civilized nation — an instance where statesmen and Juris- 
consults betrayed their country to administer to the passions 
of a mob. Edward Everett, who will be known in the history 
of that country as one who aspired to be both jurist and states- 
man, following the example of others, who assumed to be of like 
grade, wrote for the newspapers vindicating on principles of 
public law, the act of Captain Wilkes. He cited only from the 
text-writers, and even into them did not go skin deep, but in his 
anxiety to sustain the act he falsified history, it will be imma- 
terial to posterity, whether from ignorance or design. Con- 
sidering Yankee ethics, he would choose it to be ascribed to 
the latter. Colonel Laurens, of South Carolina, had been sent 
by the Continental Congress as Minister to Holland, and was 
captured at sea by a British man-of-war — he was taken to 
England and confined in the Tower as a state prisoner until the 
end of the war — a period of more than two years. The news- 
papers seized upon this as a precedent, assuming without ex- 
amination that the captured ship was under the Dutch flag. Mr. 
Everett, in an elaborate vindication of the act of Captain Wilkes, 
justified it on this precedent. It was shown afterwards by clear 
proof, from historical documents, that the ship from which Col- 
onel Laurens was taken belonged to the Revolutionary Colonies, 
and was under the flag of the Continental Congress. This was 
immediately fully exposed in the public journals of the day, and 
yet Mr. Everett, the soi-disant jurist and statesman, remained 
silent. This gentleman had been minister to England, Senator 
of the United States for Massachusetts, and Secretary of State 
of the United States. He was followed by sundry others of 
the best known public men in the North, in like manner vin- 
dicating and justifying the capture, amongst whom I enumerate 
General Lewis Call, of Michigan, and Mr. Beecher Lawrence, 
Rhode Island, who had undertaken to be an editor of and com- 
mentator on Chancellor Kent's treatise on International Law. 
Such is Yankee character — it was all surrendered at the first 
summons from England. 

" Our prison life, afforded, of course, but little variety — 



2j^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



we breakfasted at nine, and after that took exercise in walking 
up and down the limited space allotted to us in the area of the 
fortress, but in this, although girded round by sentinels, we 
were allowed freely to intermingle and to talk without reserve. 
During this period, our only apartment was put in order by a 
servant — in bad weather, to enable this operation to be per- 
formed, we alternated with our neighbors in the occupation of 
our apartments. About 12 o'clock the steamer arrived with the 
mails from Boston. They occupied us for an hour or two ; after 
that, we inter-visited, had a glass of toddy, talked over and 
speculated on the news. Our dinner was at three, and thanks 
to the sedulous and provident care of our friends in Maryland, 
we always had the materials for a good one. After dinner, again 
exercise until retreat was beaten at 5 o'clock, when, as I have 
said, we were all required to repair to our quarters, there to be 
inspected. We had the means of making tea in our respective 
apartments, and made it the occasion of a social gathering. 
After tea, whist for those who were so inclined, until the hour 
came to extinguish the lights. The fort was garrisoned by 
some five or six hundred new levies, officers and all, from 
Massachusetts, to whom the technical term ' raw ' was peculiarly 
appropriate. The fortress had just been finished — had hardly 
a gun mounted, and certainly not a man capable of firing one. 
We all prayed earnestly that the Yankees would refuse to sur- 
render us — nor was this on our own part particularly disin- 
terested, knowing as we did that the war with England to follow 
such a refusal would speedily terminate the war with the South. 

" Time glided on — on the of December we saw by the 

papers that the first news of our arrest was received in England, 
when the ' Trent ' arrived, and that it made a profound sensa- 
tion. It struck the public mind of England at once as an insult 
to her flag and to her national honour. By the next arrival, 
three days afterwards, we learned that the packet had been 
detained at Queenstown one day to receive a ' Queen's mes- 
senger,' that on landing at New York he had proceeded at 
once by a special train to Washington, and speculation was rife 
as to the character of the dispatch he bore to the British Min- 
ister. I never doubted the character of the demand, and, as 
evidence, here record the fact, that I laid a wager of fifty barrels 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 2?C 

of corn with my fellow-prisoner, Charles J. Faulkner, Esq., of 
Berkeley County, Virginia, that the demand would be to replace 
the prisoners under the British flag — and that demand would be 
peremptory, in terms to admit of no delay. Mr. Faulkner had 
been the Minister of the United States in France; had been 
arrested on his return from that mission a few months before, 
and was confined at Fort Warren, 

" He was released before the intelligence came from Eng- 
land, but I won the bet, as doubtless he will acknowledge 
should we ever meet again. We remained in suspense some five 
or six days, when the papers brought us the demand of Lord 
Russell from the Foreign Office, that we, with our secretaries, 
should be delivered to Lord Lyons, the British Minister, with 
the reply of Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, complying with it, 
though filled with reasons to show why he should not, and 
when he would not comply. 

" On the first day of January, 1862, returning from break- 
fast between 9 and 10 o'clock, I was met by Colonel Dimmick, 
who told me that a messenger had arrived from the Depart- 
ment of State, who desired a private interview with Mr. Slidell 
and myself. I said to him : ' Very well ; where shall the interview 
be held? We have but our sleeping apartment, which is just 
now in a state of disorder.' The Colonel replied : * You shall 
have it, if you please, at my quarters,' and calling up the 
messenger at the same time, who stood near, introduced him 
as Mr. Webster, from the Department of State. We were near 
my apartment and I said I would go in and have it hastily pre- 
pared to receive us. Mr, Slidell had not yet left it. TRe Mr. 
Webster thus introduced told me at first, in reply to a question, 
that he was a clerk in the Department of State; subsequently 
he told our secretaries that he was a deputy marshal in the 
District of Columbia. When alone with Mr. Slidell in our 
apartment he said that he was sent by the Secretary of State to 
take us, with our secretaries by name, from the fort, and to 
take us out forty miles to sea, where he would meet a ship, 
on board of which he was to place us, adding that the hour of 
twelve was fixed for the rendezvous at sea, and he hoped, there- 
fore, that we would lose no time in getting off. We asked him 
if his orders, or his directions, for our guidance were in writing? 



236 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



He said no, his orders were entirely verbal, that he had noth- 
ing in writing. We asked him where at sea we were to meet 
the ship? He replied that he was not at Hberty to say, but 
that he would meet it at the distance of forty miles. He said 
he had brought a steamer from Boston to conduct us, apolo- 
gizing that it was only a ' tug,' by saying that it was the only 
steamer to be chartered in Boston, when he arrived the night 
before. It was reported to us by our secretaries that this 
emissary from Washington told them, whilst on board the tug, 
that he had no orders in writing from Mr. Seward, but was 
directed verbally when he arrived at Boston to report himself 
there to the commander of the Navy- Yard, who would furnish 
him with a steamer to take ofT the prisoners, and that he must 
not disclose his errand to any one except the commanding 
offtcer at Fort Warren. This reserve was doubtless due, in the 
opinion of the Secretary, to his fears that, if our intended release 
was known in Boston it might excite an hneiite. I should add 
further that we found on board the ' tug ' as a ' guard of 
honour,' a corporal with six marines. Colonel Dimmick, com- 
mander of the fortress, attended us to the wharf, where we 
embarked, and took a respectful and kind leave of us when- 
we went on board the ' tug,' and I have here great pleasure in 
recording the fact that this officer, whilst strictly regardful of 
the duties of his position, was always considerate, kind and 
respectful, and omitted nothing which he could properly do, 
which would contribute to the comfort of the prisoners in his 
charge. As we passed out of the fort, our fellow-prisoners 
ranged themselves in line to witness our departure. They were 
restrained from other manifestation than a cordial ' good bye ', 
' God bless you ' ; their tone of voice spoke the rest. 

" Some time before our release, some four hundred of the 
prisoners of war from North Carolina had been paroled, and 
embarked in a ship sent to receive them oflf the fort. By special 
permission of Colonel Dimmick, their comrades, along with 
the prisoners of state, were allowed to go to the ramparts to 
witness their departure. As their ship moved off we all gave 
them a parting salute of three cheers. We looked to the same 
indulgence to those we left behind at our departure, but not a 
man appeared on the ramparts. We heard afterwards inci- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



237 



dentally that some evidences of disafifection were manifested by 
the garrison, in consequence of our release, and this may have 
disinclined the Colonel to permit a cheer from the ramparts. 
The weather was very rough on our passage, across an arm of 
the sea to Provincetown, in Massachusetts, some forty miles 
from Fort Warren, and the waves made a clear passage over 
the deck of our little * tug.' As we entered the harbor we saw 
a war steamer under the British flag, lying at anchor, ranging 
alongside. The emissary having us in charge went on board, as 
he said, to inquire whether that was the ship on board which 
he was to deliver us — returning, he reported it was right, 
and we were at liberty to go on board. We did so, and were 
most courteously received on the quarter-deck by Captain 
Hewett, of Her Majesty's ship the ' Rinaldo.' The manner 
of placing us on board this ship from a small ' tug,' in charge of 
a corporal's guard of marines, was one of designed and marked 
indignity, the conception of Mr. Secretary Seward. It was 
observed, of course, by Captain Hewett, who told us he had been 
ordered by Lord Lyons to await our reception where we found 
him, and that he had been looking out for us all day, but that 
when our steamer approached it did not enter into his mind that 
his guests were to be so delivered. 

" It was a steamer of moderate size, carrying but thirteen 
guns, and, of course, but of limited accommodation. We were 
conducted at once to the cabin on the deck below, where the 
captain told us his own state-room, opening into the cabin, and 
that of his first lieutenant into the ward-room, were placed at 
the disposal of the two Commissioners ; and that of our two 
secretaries, one could have a cot swung in the cabin, and the 
other be well provided for forward. We protested earnestly 
against this arrangement so far as it dislocated the captain and 
his lieutenant, but he persisted that he must be allowed to make 
the provision he thought proper for his own guests. It resulted 
that Mr. Slidell, as the senior, was assigned to the cabin state- 
room, I to the first lieutenant's. Mr. Eustis had a cot swung 
in the cabin, and Mr. Macfarland to the berth of one of our 
ward-room officers. Captain Hewett then showed us his 
orders from Lord Lyons, his ship at the time lying at New 
York — they were that he should proceed at once to Province- 



238 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



town, Massachusetts, and there remain until we arrived. That 
we should be received in a manner due to private gentle- 
men of distinction, but without any formal distinction. That 
as soon as on board we should get under weigh and take us to 
any neutral port we might elect, but we were not to be taken 
to any port either in the United or Confederate States. Thus 
the anchor was weighed as soon as we attained the deck, and 
the ship then moved out of the harbour to sea. We at once 
requested to be taken to Halifax, where, without detention, we 
could re-embark on a Cunard mail steamer for England, and it 
was so decided. Captain Hewett then begged that we would 
consider his cabin as our own, and announced the dinner hour 
at 6 o'clock. His steward had orders to consider our commands 
as his, and we were thus placed entirely at home. We had a 
very good and very pleasant dinner, with ample variety of ex- 
cellent wine. On coming aboard we observed a large supply of 
fresh provision, including poultry and game, hanging in the 
after-rigging. Just released from prison, speeding on the way 
to our mission, and surrounded by cordial and hospitable hosts, 
everything looked bright. We retired to bed about ii o'clock. 
The captain told us as we parted that he feared we would have 
a rough night, that the barometer had been falling all day and 
yet continued to fall, that we had fairly got to sea, and were 
in a stiff gale. I took little account of it, and turned in, and 
was soon fast asleep, losing in the act only the most bright and 
hopeful visions. 

" An hour or two before day I waked up, finding myself 
thoroughly wet and exceedingly cold. The door of the state- 
room admitted a dim light from the lantern swung in the ward- 
room. When fairly roused, I found the water trickling upon me 
rapidly from above. My attention was attracted by a regur- 
gitating sound of water on the cabin floor. I looked down 
and saw the clothes I had taken off and deposited on a chair, 
with my boots, making their gyrations over the floor with the 
motion of the ship, in six or eight inches of water. Not well 
accustomed to the incidents of sea life, I was at some loss to 
know what was the matter — it was certain only that I was very 
wet and cold, with the water pouring upon me from above, and 
several inches deep on the cabin floor. I leaned over the berth, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



239 



and, as opportunity offered in the ebb and flow of the tide, res- 
cued my clothes piece by piece from the flood below, wrung 
out the water as well as I could and put them beside me in the 
dryest part of my berth. The rolling and tossing of the ship, 
with the incessant roar of the wind heard from above, recalled 
the captain's prediction that we were to have a rough night — 
but what was I to do? very wet and getting wetter, and very 
cold and getting colder. Whilst pondering on my condition, 
I heard some one in the adjoining apartment, and calling to 
him brought in the ward-room steward. I asked him what 
was the matter? He replied, in a tone which seemed earnestly 
intent on shifting the responsibility, that it was blowing a fearful 
gale and the ship was straining very hard, and that some of the 
seams had opened on deck, which let the water in below ; that he 
was very sorry, but there was no way of stopping it. 

" It must be remembered that we were in a northern lati- 
tude on the night of the ist of January, no fire, and the ther- 
mometer far below the freezing point. It took little time to 
determine that I could not remain where I was; the steward 
brought me some outer clothing from the lieutenant's stores, 
with some dry blankets. I got up, keeping my feet out of the 
water with his aid, and wrapped in these habiliments I found my 
way into the cabin. The cabin floor was on a higher level than 
the ward-room, and its broad and ample lockers well supplied 
with morocco cushions, of every length and breadth. I laid 
down on the floor, and with the aid of the cushions, the steward 
supplied me with a comfortable bed, wedged in by other cushions 
to keep me in place against the rolling of the ship. At every 
half hour the captain, lieutenant, or sailing-master came in to 
consult the barometer, which, as they reported, continued to 
fall. They reported further that it was blowing a hard gale, 
with very thick weather and snow. At the usual breakfast hour 
no table could be spread, and while I lay on the floor, the 
steward brought me a cup of coffee, with a piece of bread and 
a dish of ' Irish stew ' — in sea phrase, * lobscouse ' — the former 
the cabin, the latter the forecastle name, meaning a hash of mut- 
ton stewed with sundry condiments, more savory than refined, 
the principal ingredient the proscribed onion. I had no relish 
for ' lobscouse,' but refreshed by the coffee and bread, and 



2A0 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

wrapped in the warm overcoats of the officers, made my way 
to the deck, and there was a spectacle that I presume could find 
its parallel only in the most dreary wastes of the Arctic ocean. 
" Upon the uniform basis of a hoarse and continuous roar, 
the wind actually howled and shrieked — the ship everywhere 
coated thickly with ice, not a sail was set, nor could one be set, 
every part of the rigging was a conglomerate mass of ice, which 
was increased in thickness every moment by the heavy spray 
of the sea, of which every drop froze directly where it fell. 
The ample store of provisions, which I have commemorated 
on a preceding page, in the rigging, had all gone as an offering 
to Neptune or other monsters of the deep. The boats hang- 
ing in the davits had disappeared, stove, and carried away 
during the night. The foretopsail under a double reef, the 
only sail on the ship carried away, and the bulwarks followed, 
stove in. The sea presented no appearance, even, of undulation, 
but its surface seemed erected into large upright cones, seeth- 
ing and foaming at the apex. The deck, even then, was coated 
with ice, certainly some two or three inches thick, and there 
was no walking without the aid of those having better sea-legs 
than I. The forecastle presented the appearance of a magnifi- 
cent cave, or grotto, the roof of which was sustained by massive 
stalactites, and the guns were covered by a uniform, continu- 
ous sheet of thick ice, nothing of the guns or its carriage visible 
in the appropriate outlines. For four days and nights we 
struggled with that storm — the ship all the time under steam. 
We never saw the sun by day, or the moon or stars by night, 
and thus had no observation to determine our position. Dur- 
ing the whole period the barometer continued to fall. The 
sailing-master estimated by his dead reckoning that we had 
passed to the eastward of Halifax, but in the uncertainty and 
absence of any observation it was too hazardous an attempt to 
approach the land. More than twenty of the crew were frost- 
bitten in their fingers and toes, but the captain held on his 
course, determined to make good his port in Halifax. We had 
more than once remonstrated and urged him to give it up, there 
being nothing to indicate that the gale would abate. On the 
morning of the 5th of January, things were dark and gloomy 
as ever, and the captain told us that he had determined, if he 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



241 



got no observations at meridian, he would bear away for Ber- 
muda. At 12 o'clock he came into the cabin and said : ' Gen- 
tlemen, I am happy to inform you that the ship has altered her 
course and we are heading due south, direct for Bermuda.' 
To this happy change I believe we were more indebted to the 
diminished quantity of our coal than to any diminution in the 
persevering purpose of Captain Hewett. We ran some three 
hundred miles before we got within the benign influence of the 
Gulf Stream, and the gale followed us to the borders of the 
gulf. As we advanced into it, the temperature of the air became 
milder, but it required hot water from the furnaces, liberally dis- 
tributed over the deck for several hours, to thaw the compact 
masses of ice. The sun once more shone out brightly, and all 
the officers except the captain were busily engaged exercising 
themselves with shovel, pick-axe and other implements, in break- 
ing the masses of ice and throwing it overboard. 

" It took several hours to get the ship free of ice, but 
vre had passed beyond the region of the gale, and when this was 
done, with a bright sun, a gentle breeze and a dry ship, we 
seemed to enter upon a new life. Then, for the first time, the 
captain told us of the perils we had passed. It seems that 
when oflF the Bay of Fundy, during the midst of the gale, the 
tiller-rope broke, and a few minutes afterwards the preventer 
rope, the adjutant of the tiller, broke also, from the great pres- 
sure on the wheel. There was nothing then left by which the 
ship could be kept on her course but the foretopsail, and that 
blew away. Fortunately, we were all fast asleep and uncon- 
scious of our condition. It seems that it took more than an 
hour to get a new rope adjusted on the wheel, and in the mean- 
time, our ship drifted ad libitum. The captain reported that 
when the ship came again under command of the helm, he 
found by his soundings that he was in thirty-fathom water, 
indicating the dangerous proximity of St. George's banks, at 
the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. Having had no observation, 
he could only guess at his actual position, and after a few 
moments' pause, whether he should seek to extricate himself by 
wearing ship, or by forcing her ahead by the power of steam, he 
determined on the latter, and in a short time again found him- 
self out of soundings. 



242 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" We had a pleasant run after this to Bermuda, where we 
arrived on the 9th of January. We made the land soon after 
daylight ; there was quite a breeze blowing, and we approached 
it cautiously and slowly. The island presented a high and 
mountainous outline, with a narrow fringe of coast, against 
which the surf broke in cooling sheets of foam. A pilot 
boarded us some three or four miles of¥, in the form of a dark 
brown mulatto, in sailor's garb with a broad, weather-beaten 
straw hat. The ship was given up to him as the pilot, and he 
guided us slowly but securely into a large land-locked bay. As 
we approached, telegraphic signals were interchanged between 
the ship and the Admiral's residence on shore. They apprised 
him of the name of the ship and of our presence on board. Cap- 
tain Hewett landed to pay his respects to the Admiral, and 
the ship continued her way to the Government docks inside the 
Mole. We passed very near the Admiral's ship of 90 guns, the 
' Nile/ lying at anchor in the bay. The signals had apprised her, 
too, of our arrival. As we passed, the band mustered on the 
quarter-deck, with the officers grouped around. It struck up the 
air ' Dixie Land,' then supposed to be the national air of the 
Confederates. Mr. Slidell and I, standing apart on the deck, 
acknowledged the compliment by waving our caps, and the 
salute was returned in like manner by the officers of the * Nile.' 
Soon after we made fast within the Mole, the captain and senior 
lieutenants of the ' Nile ' came on board to make their con- 
gratulatory respects, with an earnest invitation to us to visit 
their ship. We did so the next morning before sailing, and 
were most kindly and hospitably received. This civility was an 
earnest of the sympathy and good feeling we met with every- 
where from the British naval officers. 

" We had requested Captain Hewett to say to the Admiral 
that we should be very much obliged if he would expedite us 
on our way to England, either by sending us direct if he could 
spare a ship from the station, or if not. then that we should go 
as early as practicable to the Island of St. Thomas, where we 
could intercept the Royal Mail Steam Line from Mexico to 
Havana. We knew that this line in regular course left St. 
Thomas on the 13th, but was often delayed a day tw make con- 
nection with an associate line from South America. Captain 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 243 

Hewett had been good enough to say that, in default of a more 
suitable arrangement, he would, with the Admiral's permis- 
sion, have his ship coaled during the night and pursue his voy- 
age with us on the next day (the loth). The sea was calm in 
those latitudes, and he felt assured that he could make the run 
in four days, which would put us at St. Thomas on the 14th, 
and thus enable us without detention to proceed to England, 
provided the mail steamer should, as sometimes happened, have 
been detained a day. Captain Hewett returned from his visit 
to the Admiral about 3 p. m. He reported first an invitation 
from the Admiral, that we should dine with him that evening, 
at seven, and spend the night ashore — next, that he had but one 
steamer, then at Bermuda, which he could offer us to go to 
England, the ' Racer,' Captain Lyons, and that she could be got 
ready for us in three days, but if we preferred taking the chance 
of hitting the mail steamer at St. Thomas, he would give an 
order to Captain Hewett accordingly. The ' Racer,' we 
found, was a small steamer and a slow one (lucus a non lucendo) 
and would probably require twenty days to get to England. 
Captain Hewett, whose earnest kindness I have renewed pleasure 
in recording, although his ship was much shattered by the gale 
we had left, said, if we chose to go with him, he would have his 
coal replenished during the night, get off at an early hour on 
the next day, and would engage to have us at St. Thomas in the 
forenoon of the 14th. We accepted the latter course, which he 
telegraphed to the Admiral, and the order was issued accordingly. 

" Immediately a large force was put to coal the ship, which 
was successfully concluded betwen 10 and 11 o'clock on the 
morning of the loth. We were visited during our stay by the 
naval officers on the station ashore and afloat, with most kind 
and hospitable invitations to dine, and so forth. And now for 
our visit to Admiral Milne. 

" He had a beautiful official residence on shore, with cul- 
tivated grounds, shrubberies, etc., and gave us a cordial wel- 
come. We found a party of the officials of the island assembled. 
The Admiral was very kind and gracious in his disposition to 
make the best provision in his power for our comfort. He had 
given the necessary orders and employed all the necessary force 
to have the ' Rinaldo ' ready for departure at an early hour 



2^^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

on the following day. We were told on taking leave 
that we were to be quartered for the night at the house 
of Mrs. Robinson, not far oflf, which had been provided 
for us. Arriving there about midnight, we found a good- 
looking country house, and our hostess, a sturdy but well 
mannered negro woman. Lights were burning, and she 
expecting us. Counting up the party of four, she said she 
had but three chambers, but the fourth gentleman was to stay 
with Mrs. Philips. Of this latter lady we had never heard, but 
her house was near by, and Mr. Eustis and Macfarland cast lots 
which should be the guest of Mrs. Philips. It fell upon Mac- 
farland, and he moved oiT in the dark, to hunt up his hostess and 
claim his position. We had clean and commodious chambers, 
with excellent beds, neatness, propriety, and every proper obser- 
vance due to our comfort, including baths, abundance of water 
and towels. It was the first night in which we had slept in a 
quiet bed, hard and fast on the land, and we enjoyed it accord- 
ingly. The breakfast table, the next morning, was of most 
inviting aspect, abundantly supplied with fish, vegetables, and 
fruit and delicious coffee, the table service of silver. On taking 
leave, we offered ample remuneration to our landlady, which 
she civilly but peremptorily declined, saying that we were the 
guests of the Admiral, and not hers. We had to content our- 
selves, therefore, with distributing silver coin to the little 
negroes, her children. 

" What we saw of the Island of Bermuda the first week in 
January, would show it a delightful climate. Thermometer from 
75 to 80, the heat tempered by the breezes from the sea. Roses 
and flowers of every hue blooming everywhere, birds singing 
and the sky without a cloud. We embarked in the Admiral's 
boat about 10 o'clock on the morning of the loth of January to 
return to our ship. We were conducted to the boats at a land- 
ing by an artificial stairway, in a beautiful land-locked little bay, 
trenching from the ocean deeply into the island. The ever- 
green foliage on all sides came down to the water's edge, the 
depths ranging from ten to twenty feet — the bottom of coral, 
perfectly white, and the water so transparent that you saw the 
bottom as though no fluid was interposed. On the way to our 
ship we visited, by invitation, the Admiral's ship, the ' Nile,' 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 24 j 

were most courteously and hospitably received, and after inspect- 
ing her throughout, her officers, in a parting glass, drank to our 
safe arrival in ' Old England.' We weighed anchor and stood 
out from Bermuda in the forenoon of the loth of January. Our 
hospitable captain had fully replenished his larder, the sea was 
calm, and we had a prosperous run to St. Thomas. Rounding 
the headland of the beautiful bay, on the precipitous sides of 
which the town seemed suspended, we came to anchor, about 
10 o'clock on the morning of the 14th, near the Royal mail 
steamer, the ' La Plata,' which, as we had hoped, had been 
detained a day by the failure of her South American associate. -V — 

" The United States war steamer_j^roquois ' was there, ^ 

also at anchor, and near her at anchor was the British war *^. 

steamer * Cadmus.' Our arrival by this route was of course 
entirely unexpected. The captain of the latter ship came on 
board, and after a very kind salutation, told us that our arrival 
would relieve him from the very annoying duty of following and 
watching the Yankee man-of-war ; that he had been following 
him through those seas for some weeks ; that he should lie 
where he was, after the ' La Plata ' sailed, unless the Yankee 
weighed anchor, when ' if he does, you may rely that I shall 
follow him, to prevent another Trent affair.' 

" Although so far advanced in the winter, the weather was 
intensely warm, and we were habited in linen jackets, with straw 
hats. Communicating with the ' La Plata,' we learned that 
she would sail in a few hours, and because of the heat I did 
not go ashore. Mr. Macfarland and Eustis, however, did so, and 
brought us an ample supply of fruit, for which St. Thomas 
is celebrated, for the voyage. Pineapples, oranges, bananas, 
in short, all the fruits of the tropics, in addition to which some 
ladies of the island, hearing of our arrival, sent oflf servants with 
large baskets of fruit and flowers, and a kind note of welcome. 
When the time arrived for our departure. Captain Hewett, hav- 
ing previously sent our baggage, himself accompanied us on 
board the ' La Plata ' in his ' gig.' All the officers of the ship 
assembled in the cabin to take leave ; their adieus, over a glass 
of champagne, with the earnestly expressed hope that we should 
meet again, were kind and sincere. The ' La Plata ' weighed 
anchor about 2 P. M., and we were off for England. 






246 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" This ship was the same, on the Royal Mail Line, sailing in 
connection with the Trent, which would have received us on 
her voyage out before,, had we not been captured, and which 
conveyed Mrs. Slidell, with the other ladies of our party, after 
that event. Captain Weller, commanding the ship, was in every- 
thing courteous and cordial, and by his direction we had excel- 
lent state-rooms. When we sailed from Havana our passage 
was paid through to England, which he informed us was taken 
in full of further demand, besides which courtesy, our purses 
being low, he advanced to me all the money required by the 
party for contingencies, for my cheque upon a banker. Should 
there be any who object to the apparently light character of these 
reminiscences, I will remit him to himself under like circum- 
stances. Our ship was not crowded, but amongst the passen- 
gers were several educated and intelligent gentlemen, inclu- 
ding the Governor of Martinique, returning home on a leave of 
absence. We had thus a pleasant party. We had a fine ship; 
her flushed deck, 300 feet long by 30 feet wide, gave us for exer- 
cise the same space that we had been allowed at Fort Warren. 
The weather, though somewhat boisterous as we advanced on 
the voyage, was, on the whole, passable for a winter month, 
and we arrived at Southampton on the 29th of January, after 
the usual passage of fourteen days. Soon after landing I pro- 
ceeded to London, on the same day, and took quarters at Fen- 
ton's Hotel, St. James Street." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



247 



CHAPTER IX. 

Instruction from State Department — Dispatch from Richmond About the 
British Vessels "Bruce" and "Napier," and Denying Report the Confede- 
rate States Government Had Prohibited Export of Cotton to Neutrals — 
Letter from Mr. Mason to Mr. Hunter —English Sympathy with South — 
Views of Members of Parliament on Blockade and Recognition — Inter- 
view with Earl Russell — Mr. Lindsay's Interview with the Emperor — Visit 
of M. Mercier to Richmond a Mystery — Cotton Famine — Educated Classes 
in England Favor the South — Private Letters. 

The difficulties of communication between the Confederate 
States and foreign countries caused great irregularity and delay- 
in the transmission of dispatches. Long intervals occurred dur- 
ing which Mr. Mason heard nothing from home and nothing 
from him reached his family or the Department, although letters 
and dispatches were frequently sent from both sides, and few 
of them failed eventually to reach their destination. It has not 
been found practicable to arrange them in the usual form of a 
correspondence, since the dates of those on the same subject 
bear no relation to each other ; many of them having been 
delayed until long after others, written much later, had been 
received and answered. Not only were duplicates and triplicates 
sent of every dispatch, but each began with a brief synopsis of 
the former ones ; to give them in full would, therefore, involve 
much tedious repetition. Extracts from them have been selected 
to tell all that is of interest connected with the mission, or that 
relates to military events in America, and occasional letters to 
members of Mr. Mason's family are introduced to tell of the 
warm interest and ^sympathy felt in England for the South, 
evinced by the kindness and hospitality extended to him, the 
representative of the South. 

Dispatches from the Department, in Richmond, have been 
inserted with regard to the subjects to which they refer and the 
time when they reached London, rather than to the time they 
were written. 



248 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Extracts From " Instructions " to Hon. J. M. Mason. 

" Department of State, 

"Richmond, September 23d, 1861. 
" To the Hon. J. M. Mason, etc., etc. 

" Sir : The President desires that you should proceed to 
London with as Httle delay as possible, and place yourself, as soon 
as you may be able to do so, in communication with the Gov- 
ernment. 

" The events which have occurred since our Commissioners 
had their first interview with Lord John Russell have placed our 
claims to recognition in a much stronger point of view. But, in 
presenting the case once more to the British Government, you 
ought again to explain the true position in which we appear 
before the world. 

" We are not to be viewed as revolted provinces or rebel- 
lious subjects seeking to overthrow the lawful authority of a 
common sovereign. Neither are we warring for rights of a 
doubtful character, or such as are to be ascertained only by im- 
plication. On the contrary, the Union from which we have with- 
drawn was founded upon the express stipulations of a written 
instrument, which established a Government whose powers were 
to be exercised for certain declared purposes, and restricted 
within well defined limits. When a sectional and dominant 
majority persistently violated the covenants and conditions of 
that compact, those States whose safety and well-being depended 
upon the performance of these covenants, were justly absolved 
from all moral obligation to remain in such a Union. And when 
the Government of that Union, instead of affording protection 
to their social system, itself threatened not merely to disturb 
the peace and security of its people, but also to destroy their 
social system, the States thus menaced owed it to themselves and 
their posterity to withdraw immediately from a Union whose 
very bonds prevented them from defending themselves against 
such dangers. Such were the causes which led the Confederate 
States to form a new Union, to be composed of more homogene- 
ous materials and interests. Experience had demonstrated to 
them that a Union of two different and hostile social systems 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. -,.^ 

"^^y 

under a Government in which one of them wielded nearly all the 
power, was not only ill-assorted, but dangerous in the extreme 
to the weaker section whose scheme of society was thus unpro- 
tected. Prompted by these teachings, eleven sovereign States 
bound together by the tie of a common social system, and by 
the sympathies of identical interests, have instituted a new Con- 
federacy, and a new Government, which they justly hope will 
be more harmonizing in its operation, and more p'ermanent in its 
existence. In forming this Government they seek to preserve 
their old institutions and to pursue through their new organic 
law the very ends and purposes for which, as they believe, the 
first was formed. 

" It was because a revolution was sought to be made in the 
spirit and ends of the organic law of their first Union by a 
dominant and sectional majority, operating through the 
machinery of a Government which was in their hands, and 
placed there for different purposes, that the Confederate States 
withdrew themselves from the jurisdiction of such a Govern- 
ment, and estabHshed another for themselves. Their example, 
therefore, furnishes no precedent for the overthrow of the law- 
ful authority of a regular Government by revolutionary violence, 
nor does it encourage a resort to fractious tumult and civil war 
by irresponsible bodies of men. On the contrary, their Union 
has been formed through the regular action of the Sovereign 
States comprising the Confederacy, and it has established a 
Government competent to the discharge of all its civil functions, 
and entirely responsible, both in war and peace for all its actions. 
Nor has that Government shown itself unmindful of the obliga- 
tion which its people incurred whilst their States were members 
of the former Union. On the contrary, one of their first acts 
was to send Commissioners to the Government at Washington 
to adjust amicably all subjects of difference, and to provide for 
a peaceable separation and a fair satisfaction of the mutual claims 
of the two Confederacies. These Commissioners were not re- 
ceived, and all offers for a peaceful accommodation were con- 
temptously rejected. The authority of our Government itself 
was denied, its people denounced as rebels, and a war was waged 
against them, which, if carried on in the spirit in which it was 
proclaimed, must be the most sanguinary and barbarous which 



2^0 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



has been known for centuries amongst civilized people. The 
Confederate States have thus been forced to take up arms in 
defence of their right to self-government, and, in the name of 
that sacred right, they have appealed to the nations of the earth, 
not for material aid or alliances offensive and defensive, but for 
the moral weight which they would derive from holding a recog- 
nized place as a free and independent people. In asking for 
this, they feel that they will not receive more than they will give 
in return, and they oflfer, as they think, a full equivalent for any 
favor that may thus be granted them. Diplomatic relations are 
established mainly to protect human intercourse, and to adjust 
peaceably the differences which spring from such intercourse, or 
arise out of the conflicting interests of society. The advantages 
of such intercourse are mutual, and in general, as between 
nations, any one of them receives as much as it gives, to say 
nothing of the well-being of human society, which is promoted 
by placing its relations under the protection and restraints of 
public law. It would seem then, that a new Confederacy, asking 
to establish diplomatic relations with the world, ought not to be 
required to do more than to present itself through a Govern- 
ment competent to discharge civil functions, and strong enough 
to be responsible for its actions to the other nations of the earth. 
After this is shown, the great interests of peace and the general 
good of society would seem to require that a speedy recognition 
should follow. 

" It can not be difficult to show, in our case, a strict com- 
pliance with these, the just conditions of our recognition as an 
independent people. If we were pleading for favors, we might 
ask and find more than one precedent in British history for 
granting the request that we be recognized for the sake of that 
sacred right of self-government for which we are this day in 
arms, and which we have been taught to prize by the teachings, 
the traditions, and the example of the race from which we have 
sprung. But we do not place ourselves before the bar of nations 
to ask for favors ; we seek for what we believe to be justice, not 
only to ourselves, but justice to the great interests of peace and 
humanity. If the recognition of our independence must finally 
come, and if it be only a work of time, it seems to be the duty 
of each of the nations of the earth to throw the moral weight of 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 25I 



its recognition into the scale of peace as soon as possible. For 
to delay will only be to prolong unnecessarily the sufferings of 
war. If, then, our Government can be shown to be such as has 
been here described, we shall place ourselves in the position of a 
people who are entitled to a recognition of their independence. 
The physical and moral elements of our Confederacy; its great, 
but undeveloped capacities, and its developed strength, as proved 
by the history of the conflict in which we are now engaged ought 
to satisfy the world of the responsible character of the Govern- 
ment of the Confederate States. The eleven States now Con- 
federated together cover seven hundred and thirty-three thou- 
sand, one hundred and forty-four square miles of territory, and 
embrace nine millions, two hundred and forty-four thousand 
people. This territory, large enough to become the seat of an 
immense power, embraces not only all the best varieties of 
climate and production known to the temperate zone, but also 
the great staples of cotton, tobacco, sugar, and rice. It teems 
with the resources both moral and physical of a great empire, 
and nothing is wanted but time and peace for their development. 
To these States there will probably be added hereafter Mary- 
land, Missouri, and Kentucky, whose interests and sympathies 
must bind them to the South. If these are added, the Con- 
federate States will embrace eight hundred and fifty thousand 
square miles of territory, and twelve and a half millions of 
people ; to say nothing of the once common Territories w^est 
of these States, which will probably fall into the new Con- 
federacy. Is it to be supposed that such a people and with such 
resources can be subdued in war when subjugation is to be fol- 
lowed by such consequences as would result from their con- 
quest? If such a supposition prevails anywhere, it can find no 
countenance in the history of the contest in which we are 
engaged. In the commencement of this struggle, our enemies 
had in their possession the machinery of the old Government. 

" The naval, and for the most part, the military establish- 
ments were in their hands. They had, too, most of the accumu- 
lated capital, and nearly all the manufactories of arms, ordnance, 
and of the necessaries of life. They had all the means of strik- 
ing us hard blows before we could be ready to return them. 
And, yet, in the face of all this, we have instituted a Government 



2S2 



LIFE OF JAMEii MURRAY MASON. 



and placed more than 200,000 men in the field, with an adequate 
staiif and commissariat, A still larger number of men are ready 
to take the field, if it should become necessary, and experience 
has shown that the only limit to the disposition of the people to 
give what may be required for the war, is to be found in their 
ability. The enemy with greatly superior numbers have been 
routed in pitched battles at Bethel and Manassas. The com- 
paratively little foothold which they have had in the Confederate 
States is gradually being lost, and after six months in which they 
employed their best resources, it may truly be said they are much 
further from the conquest of the Southern States than they 
seemed to be when the struggle commenced. 

" The Union feeling, which was supposed to exist largely in 
the South and which was known to us to be imaginary, is now 
shown in the true light to all mankind. Never were any people 
more united than are those of the Confederate States in their 
purpose to maintain their independence at any cost of life and 
treasure, nor is there a party to be found anywhere in these 
States which professes a desire for a reunion with the United 
States. Nothing could prove this unanimity of feeling more 
strongly than the fact that this immense army may be said to 
have taken the field spontaneously and faster almost than the 
Government could provide for its organization and equipment. 
But the voluntary contributions of the people supplied all de- 
ficiencies until the Government could come to their assistance, 
as it has done with the necessary military establishments. And 
what is perhaps equally remarkable, it may be said with truth 
that there has been no judicial execution for a political offense 
during the whole of the war, and so far as military offenses 
are concerned, our prisons would be empty if it were not for a 
few captured spies. 

" Under these circumstances it would seem that the time has 
arrived when it would be proper in the Government of Great 
Britain to recognize our independence. If it be obvious that the 
Confederate States can not be conquered in this struggle, then 
the sooner the strife be ended the better for the cause of peace 
and the interests of mankind. Under these circumstances to 
fail to throw the great moral influence of such a recognition into 
the scale of peace when this may be done without risk or danger. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



253 



may be to share in the responsibility for the longer continuance of 
an unnecessary war. This is a consideration which ought, per- 
haps, to have some weight with a nation which leads so largely 
as does that of Great Britain in the progress of Christian civiliza- 
tion. 

" That the British people have a deep political and com- 
mercial interest in the establishment of the independence of the 
Confederate States, must be obvious to all. Their real interest 
in that event is only a little less than our own. The great ques- 
tion of cotton supply which has occupied their attention so 
justly and so anxiously for some years past will then be satis- 
factorily settled. 

" Whilst the main source of cotton production was in the 
hands of such a power as that of the late United States, and 
controlled by those who were disposed to use that control 
to acquire the supremacy in navigation, commerce and manu- 
factures over all rivals, there was just cause for anxiety on the 
part of nations who were largely dependent upon this source of 
supply for the raw material of important manufactures. But the 
case will be far different when peace is assured and the in- 
dependence of the Confederate States is acknowledged. Within 
these States must be found, for years to come, the great source 
of cotton supply. So favorable a combination of soil, climate, 
and labor is nowhere else to be found. Their capacity for in- 
creased production has, so far, kept pace with the increased 
demand, and in time of peace it promises to do so for a 
long while to come. In the question of the supply of this great 
staple there is a world-wide interest, and if the nations of the 
earth could choose for themselves a single depositary for such an 
interest, perhaps none could be found to act so impartially in that 
capacity as the Confederacy of Southern States. Their great 
interest is and will be for a long time to come in the production 
and exportation of the important staples so much sought by the 
rest of the world. It would be long before they would become 
the rivals of those who are largely concerned in navigation, 
manufactures and commerce. On the contrary, these interests 
would make them valuable customers and bind them to the 
policy of free trade. 

" Their early legislation which has thrown open their 



2^4 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



navigation, foreign and coasting, to the free competition of all 
nations, and which has imposed the lowest duties on imports con- 
sistent with their necessary revenue wants, proves the natural 
tendency of their commercial poHcy. Under these circumstances 
the supply of cotton to Great Britian would be as abundant, as 
cheap and as certain as if these States were themselves her 
colonies. 

" The establishment of such an empire, committed as it 
would be to the policy of free trade, by its interests and tradi- 
tions, would seem to be a matter of primary importance to the 
progress of human industry and the great cause of human civil- 
ization. 



" The President of the Confederate States believes that he 
can not be mistaken in supposing it to be the duty of the nations 
of the earth, by a prompt recognition, to throw the weight of 
their moral influence against the unnecessary prolongation of 
the war. 



" But whilst he neither feels nor affects an indifference to 
the decision of the world upon these questions which deeply 
concern the interest of the Confederate States, he does not pre- 
sent their claim to a recognized place among the nations of the 
earth from the belief that any such recognition is necessary to 
enable them to achieve and secure their independence. Such an 
act might diminish the sufferings and shorten the duration of an 
unnecessary war, but with or without it he believes that the Con- 
federate States, under the guidance of a kind and overruling 
Providence, will make good their title to freedom and independ- 
ence, and to a recognized place among the nations of the earth. 

" When you are officially recognized by the British Govern- 
ment and diplomatic relations between the two countries are thus 
fully established, you will request an audience of Her Majesty 
for the purpose of presenting your letters, accrediting you as 
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Con- 
federate States near Her Majesty, and in that capacity you are 



Lll^E OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 255 



empowered to negotiate such treaties as the mutual interests of 
both countries may require, subject, of course, to the approval of 
the President and the coordinate branch of the treaty-making 
power. 

" I have the honor to be, sir, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" R. M. T. HUNTER." 

Dispatch No. 2. 

" Department of State, 

"Richmond, October 29th, 1861. 
*' Hon. James M. Mason, 

" Commissioner of Confederate States. 

" Sir : The attention of this Government has been recently 
drawn to the case of two British vessels laden with naval stores 
at the port of Wilmington, North Carolina, which were forbidden 
to proceed to sea by the military authorities of that port. 

" To avoid any misapprehension of the motives of this action 
on the part of this Government, and to enable you to explain 
the matter fully, in case you are required to do so, I think it 
proper to put you in possession of all the facts. 

" When it was ascertained that the British vessels ' Bruce ' 
and ' Napier ' were taking on board cargoes of naval stores (con- 
traband of war) and proposed to clear from the port of Wilming- 
ton, the Secretary of the Treasury directed the Collector of that 
port to allow these ships to complete their cargo, and clear as 
they desired, unless there was good reason to believe, as many 
of the inhabitants supposed, that their neutral papers were in- 
tended as covers for unlawful trade with the enemy. Under this 
authority, it appears, these two vessels laden with full cargoes of 
naval stores, were proceeding to sea, when the General com- 
manding at Wilmington, believing that they would certainly be 
captured and their cargoes fall into the hands of the enemy to be 
used in the war now being waged against us, and acting under 
instructions from the War Department, issued an order for their 
detention, until he should be satisfied that they could proceed 
with a reasonable prospect of escape from the enemy's cruisers. 
This order for the detention of the vessels was accompanied by 
an offer to their owners that if thev should be unwilling to suffer 



256 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



this delay, the Government of the Confederate States, in the 
exercise of its right of preemption in regard to the cargoes 
(being contraband of war), would pay the compensation proper 
in such cases according to the law of nations. It is true that the 
' Bruce ' and the ' Napier ' entered Wilmington without molesta- 
tion from any blockading vessel, and it is said without any notice 
that any blockade existed; and it may be said, therefore, that 
having entered a port when no blockading force was in sight, 
they have a right to go to sea with their cargoes without hin- 
drance from the enemy. That they have such a right is un- 
doubted, but we know that the rights of neutrals, and the usages 
of nations have not been recently respected by the Government of 
the United States. 

" The ' Hiawatha,' with a cargo owned by British subjects 
cleared from the port of Richmond, having, it is confidently 
asserted, never received any notice of a blockade ; yet she was 
seized and has been condemned by a U. S. Court. Admonished 
by this and other examples, this Government was clearly justified 
in supposing that the enemy's authorities would not suffer the 
' Bruce ' and ' Napier ' to proceed to sea without hindrance, 
particularly when it was known that these vessels contained 
articles of which they stand in urgent need for warlike purposes. 
" You will observe from the foregoing detail that this Gov- 
ernment has treated the cases of the ' Bruce ' and ' Napier ' with 
all possible indulgence consistent with our own security, and that 
its action can not be justly considered in the least derogation of 
that protection which it owes to the legitimate trade of neutrals 
within its ports. 

" It is the earnest desire of this Government to promote and 
encourage, by all the means in its possession, the most intimate 
and liberal commercial intercourse with neutral powers. It is 
a source of deep regret that those powers have not availed them- 
selves of their legitimate right to trade in every port of the Con- 
federate States, since it can not be contended that at any time 
the blockade declared by the Government of the United States 
has been efficient or binding on neutral nations. While this 
Government is indisposed to complain of the course pursued by 
the Governments of the great European powers since the com- 
mencement of the war between the Confederate States and the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



257 



United States, it can not be denied that the effect of the 
neutrality observed by those powers has proved of far more 
disadvantage to the Confederate States than to the enemy. 

" While the strict letter of the Declaration of Paris in rela- 
tion to privateers has been enforced against us, to our manifest 
prejudice, the terms of that agreement, which declare that block- 
ades to be binding must be effective, have not been enforced as 
against our enemy, although abundant evidence has been 
afforded that no port in the Confederate States has ever been 
efficiently blockaded. Thus, neutrality has been strained to its 
utmost limit as against the Confederate States ; while clear legal 
rights have not been asserted as against our enemies, where their 
assertion would have been to our advantage. I have observed 
that the impression prevails to some extent in England that this 
Government has prohibited the exportation of cotton by sea to 
neutral and friendly nations. It would be well that you should 
take means to correct this error. The laws of the Confederate 
States warrant no such prohibition, and further proof of this is 
afforded by the recent departure from Savannah of the steam- 
ship * Bermuda,' laden with cotton and bound for Liverpool. 
Congress has alojie prohibited the exportation of cotton for the 
use of the enemy or through the enemy's territory. I am sir, 
" Your obedient servant, 

" WM. M. BROWNE, 

" Acting Secretary of State." 

In an unofficial letter to Mr. Hunter, then Secretary of 
State, written the day after his arrival, 

Mr. Mason said : " I have had but one day in London, and 
that engrossed by visitors, embracing many of our countrymen 
here, with many English gentlemen who sympathize with us. In 
my short note of last night, I could tell you only of the favorable 
impressions we received everywhere on our voyage, of sympathy 
from the British naval officers. Now, with but a day's experience 
in London, my impressions decidedly are that although the 
ministry may hang back in regard to the blockade and recogni- 
tion through the Queen's speech, at the opening of Parliament 
next week, the popular voice through the House of Commons 
will demand both. But few members, it is said, are yet in town. 



258 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



but there is a prevalent desire manifested to be well informed as 
to American affairs, and I have said to those who have called on 
me, that I should be happy to see and converse with any gentle- 
men who desired such information. My views, of course, upon 
such short acquaintance here, must be crude, but I shall be dis- 
appointed if the Parliament does not insist' on definite action 
by the ministry, inuring to the relief of their people, as well as 
ours." 

On February 2d, he wrote : " In the three days that I have 
been here, I have been called on by a great number of gentle- 
men. From all that I can gather here, while the ministry seem 
to hang fire, both as regards the blockade and recognition, the 
opinion is very prevalent, in best informed quarters, that at an 
early day after meeting of Parliament, the subject will be intro- 
duced into the House of Commons, and pressed to a favorable 
vote. The motion will probably come from a moderate Con- 
servative, in the form of an amendment to the ' Address,* and 
with the opposition, will carry sufficient Conservative vote to 
reach a majority." 

Again on February 7th, 1862, in his second dispatch to the 
Government at Richmond, he said : " I send you with this the 
Times of this date, containing the Queen's message and the 
debate on it in Parliament. The former, as you will see, contains 
no further reference to American affairs than the affair of the 
' Trent.' It is thought that silence as to the blockade was in- 
tended to leave that question open. 

" Mr. Gregory was kind enough to call on me by appoint- 
ment, and find me a place in the House of Commons. It would 
seem after consultation, members favorable to our interests 
thought it best not to broach them in the House in the form of 
an amendment to the address, as I thought would be done in my 
No. I, but the question will come up in both Houses in the same 
form at an early day. Many members of Parliament, warmly in 
our interest, have called on me, including Mr. Lindsay, M. P. for 
Liverpool, and who is the largest ship-owner in England, and I 
was introduced to others at the House. They confer freely as 
to what may be best for our interest. They say the blockade 
question is one more easily carried in our favor just now than 
recognition, in which I agree, and their efforts will be mainly 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



259 



directed to a repudiation of the blockade. If that is done, recog- 
nition will speedily follow. The ministry are certainly averse to 
either step just now. They seem afraid of any further broil with 
the Government at Washington. You will see what was said 
by Lord Derby in the Lords, and Disraeli in the House. There 
was extreme reluctance with all parties to go into any contro- 
versial question on the address, because of the recent death of 
the Prince and the real sorrow of the Queen. I have had long 
conferences with Mr. Gregory, who will be an earnest and 
efficient coadjutor ; all agree that I could not have a more useful 
or safe adviser. A call will be made, probably in both Houses, 
for any information in possession of the Government touching 
the efficiency of the blockade. I have the returns from the 
Southern ports given me at Richmond, up to the ist of Septem- 
ber, and received here since I came, for the months of September 
and October. I shall make free use with our friends in Parlia- 
ment of the results they show, and when in communication with 
the foreign office, shall send them to Earl Russell. As to the 
latter, Mr. Gregory has kindly offered to consult with judicious 
friends and advise me in what manner it may be best to ask the 
interview, always considering that while conforming to any 
proper usage, I stand in no attitude as a suppliant, or as asking 
any favor." 

In dispatch No. 4, dated February 22d, 1862, Mr. Mason 
said : " My last dispatches Nos. 2 and 3, both dated on the 7th 
of the month went by a steamer intended to attempt the block- 
ade. This goes by an opportunity through Mr. Pringle of South 
Carolina, who will make the like attempt in the Bermuda. If time 
admits, I will send you informal duplicates, with this, of my 
Nos. 2 and 3. 

" In my No. 2, I told you that I had addressed a note, on 
that day, to Earl Russell asking an interview, and on the same 
day received his reply, saying that he would receive me, on Mon- 
day the loth instant, unofficially at his residence, at 11 a. m. I 
enclosed herewith copies of those notes. 

" Mr. Mason, deputed by the President with the advice and consent of 
the Congress of the Confederate States of America, as special Commis- 
sioner to the Government of her Britannic Majesty, has the honor to inform 
Earl Russell of his arrival in London. 

"Mr. Mason is instructed by his Government, to ask that Earl Russell 



2(,o LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

would admit him to the honor of an interview, at such time as may be con- 
venient to his Lordship. 

" Mr Mason is aware that the Government of the Confederate States 
being not yet recognized by the Government of her Majesty, the interview 
he ventures to ask must, of course be unofficial. 

"Fenton's Hotel, Saturday, Feb. 8th, 1862. 
•' T/ie Right Hon. Earl Russell., 

''Foreign Office." 

(Reply.) "Earl Russell presents his compliments to Mr. Mason, and . 
in answer to his note of this day, will be happy to receive Mr. Mason unof- 
ficially at Lord Russell's House, No. 37 Chesham Place, at 11 o'clock on 
Monday morning, the loth instant. 

"FOREIGN OFFICE. 

" February 8th, 1862." 

" I am now to give you an account of the interview. Earl 
Russell received me in a civil and kind manner, and expressed 
the hope that I had not suffered on the protracted voyage, and 
its incidents. I had been told, on all hands, that his usual 
manner was cold and repulsive — not likely to be improved, I 
thought, by the character of our interview, — yet I did not find 
it so. 

" I told him that I had brought with me, my credentials as 
Special Commissioner to England, which, if he desired, I would 
read to him. He said that would be unnecessary, our relations 
being unofficial. After some introductory conversation, as to 
the general objects of my mission, I told him that, with his per- 
mission, I would read to him portions of the instructions from 
my Government to me, not in their form of instructions, but as 
embodying the views which my Government desired to be laid 
before his ; and I read to him accordingly, those portions of the 
paper, relating to recognition and the blockade. So much as 
related to the question of cotton supply and its importance to 
this country, I thought it best to omit, as I had reasons to be- 
lieve, from very intelligent sources, that it might be considered 
obtrusive, having been urged until England had become a little 
sensitive. He listened with apparent patience and attention, 
making no remark as I went on. I then resumed the conversa- 
tion, stating, that although recognition was certainly desirable, 
and, we thought, fully our due, yet we did not consider it the 
matter of first moment; that we well knew our strength and 
resources, and thus, that recognition was but a question of time, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 261 

in the solution of which, perhaps other Governments might soon 
find themselves as much interested as we were. What I chiefly 
pressed upon him, and what I assumed now to be the common 
sentiment of Europe, was that in no possible contingency, would 
the Confederate States come under a common government with 
the North. That none could doubt we had ample resources of 
men and means to carry on the war, so long as the enemy was 
in the field against us — with entire unanimity of sentiment — to 
remain, as we then were, an independent people. He took but 
little part in the conversation, asking only one or two questions ; 
one was, as to the internal condition of Kentucky, Missouri, and 
Tennessee, and he referred also to the alienation of Northwestern 
Virginia. I told him that, as far as the three States named were 
concerned, they were now members of the Confederate States ; 
that we knew a very large majority of their people were with the 
South, and none who knew the actual condition of things, 
doubted that they would remain so ; and that, as to Northwestern 
Virginia, the pretence of a separate government there was an 
empty pageant, credited only by the Government at Washing- 
ton, and by it alone for the purposes of delusion. 

" On the whole, it was manifest enough that his personal 
sympathies were not with us, and his policy inaction. Before 
leaving him, I told him that I had received a dispatch from 
Richmond, containing an explanation of the causes, which led to 
the detention, by the military authorities of Wilmington, North 
Carolina, of the *British ships, ' Napier ' and ' Bruce,' which ex- 
planation I was instructed to give, if they were asked for; I 
desired only to inform him they were in my possession. I had 
risen to take leave. He said he would be glad to hear them, 
and asked me to resume my seat. I read him that dispatch. He 
remarked that the detention was manifestly from military con- 
siderations only, and the explanation sufficient. 

" On taking leave, I said to him, that I was aware, from the 
published dispatches, that both France and England had held 
direct communication with the Government at Richmond, in 
matters interesting to them, through the agency of their consuls 
at Charleston and Savannah, and that I referred to it only to say 
that I should remain in London, and perhaps might be the 
*See dispatch No. 2, dated Richmond, October 29th, 1861. 



2^2 ^^^^ 0^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

medium of like communication, should future occasions occur. I 
do not know that he will use it, but should he do so, it might 
be pressed to our advantage. His only reply was, he hoped I 
might find my residence in London agreeable. 

" I should add, that during the interview I told him that I 
was in possession of official returns of the number of vessels, 
entered and cleared at the Confederate ports, since the blockade 
was declared, and which, if permitted, I would send him. He 
said he would be glad to have them, and I sent them to him 
accordingly. They contain, however, returns only for Charleston 
and Savannah, up to the 31st of October, for the other ports, 
only to August and September. 

" Earl Russell seemed utterly disinclined to enter into con- 
versation at all, as to the policy of his Government, and only 
said, in substance, they must await events." 

Dispatch No. 5. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, February 28th, 1862. 
" Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, 

" Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I send with this a duplicate of my No. 4. I send also 
papers laid before Parliament a few days since, but now just 
printed, touching the blockade ; and on a separate sheet, remarks 
on them — part in cipher. Also duplicates from Mr. Slidell, 
letters for the War Department and private individuals, with 
numbers of the Times. As to letters for private persons, I find 
numbers here from our country, unable to communicate with 
home, on matters of pressing interest to them, and I do not feel 
at liberty to refuse them my aid. 

" A telegram from Madrid in the Times of the 26th instant, 
said that Captain Semmes of the ' Sumter ' had been arrested 
at Tangiers, at the instance of the American consul at Gibraltar, 
and the Captain of the United States ship * Tuscarora,' who had 
gone there for that purpose. At latest accounts the ' Sumter ' was 
at Gibraltar, and the ' Tuscarora ' at Algesiras, a Spanish port 
on the opposite side of the bay. I communicated this, at once, 
to Mr. Slidell, and have his reply this morning, stating that he 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



263 



had no further information than by the telegram referred to. 
Not being confirmed through any other quarter, I hope it is 
untrue ; if otherwise, however, Mr. S. and I will endeavor in some 
way to interpose. 

" I am etc., 

" J. M. MASON. 

" P. S. — Since the above was written, I learn that Mr. Grif- 
fifth, M, P., has given notice of a motion to ask the Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs if information has been received that the 
Captain of the * Sumter ' has been arrested at Tangiers ; and if 
so, whether it is supposed, that any pressure has been put on 
the Moorish Government. I learn further, from correct sources, 
that the motion was not pressed, on private information from 
the Government that measures had been taken by it to learn the 
truth, which would be given in reply to the question. Thus it is 
certain that this Government has taken the thing in hand. 

" From the relations between England and Morocco, arising 
out of the late loan, none doubt that a word from the Foreign 
Office would effect their release. 

" I learn further that on this day week (6th March), an 
enquiry from the Conservative party agreed on, to the Govern- 
ment, will bring up questions on the doctrines of Earl Russell's 
letter. I feel authorized to say further that the Government at 
Washington has been sounded on the question, whether a single 
port in the Confederate States could not be exempted from the 
blockade with a view to the export of cotton, etc. ; no answer 
yet received. I give you the foregoing as matters to be con- 
sidered at Richmond, but of course, not to go in public channels, 
as otherwise sources open to me here might be cut off. 

" J. M. M." 

Enclosed with dispatch No. 5 was this letter (part in cipher) 
from Mr. Mason to Mr. Hunter, dated also, February 28 : 

" You will observe in the papers laid before Parliament 
(herewith) the remarkable letter of Earl Russell to Lord Lyons, 
of so recent date as the 15th of this month. It is of course to be 
taken as the Government exposition of the law of blockade, 
established by the Congress at Paris, and acceded to by the Con- 
federate States, at the request of the English and French Gov- 



264 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



ernments. I should read in connection with it the language 

used by M. Billault in the French Senate, on the instant, 

of which I enclose the report of the Paris correspondent of the 
London Times. Monsieur B., it is said, is the admitted exponent, 
in the Senate, of the views of the Emperor, and thus spoke by 
authority. 

" In this connection, it would seem, that the doctrines of 
Russell's letter had been previously agreed on between the two 
Governments, nor could it well be otherwise, when we consider 
the entire accord, as to American affairs, existing between them. 
I submit it to you as the event of latest interest. 

" In political circles, it is thought the condition of the Queen 
has much to do with the manifest reluctance of the Ministry to 
run any risk of war by interference with the blockade. It is 
said that she is under great constitutional depression, and nerv- 
ously sensitive to anything that looks like war. Indeed much 
fear is entertained as to the condition of her health. 

" I yet hope an issue will be made in Parliament on the 
doctrines of Earl Russell's letter, but at present it is a hope only." 

Dispatch No. 6, dated March nth, 1862, is of sufficient im- 
portance to be given in full. It said : 

" The recent debate in the two Houses of Parliament, on the 
question of the blockade, clearly demonstrated, that no step will 
be taken by this Government to interfere with it. I send you 
with this, files of the London Times in continuation of those 
sent with my No. 5, containing the debate at large, in both 
Houses. 

" It came on last night in the House of Lords, and is re- 
ported in the Times of to-day. You will remark in Earl Rus- 
sell's reply, at the close, he expresses the hope, if not the belief, 
that the war will end in three months, and looks to its close, by 
a peaceable separation in two States. I was given a seat on the 
floor of the House and some two or three of the Peers, in con- 
versation with me, construed his meaning to be, that the existing 
separation was final ; and such, I have no doubt, is the settled 
conviction of the public mind of this country. Still the ministry 
is sustained, and as it would seem, by almost all parties, in its 
refusal either to question the legality of the blockade, or to 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



265 



recognize our independence. Many causes concur to this end. 

" First, the p.ervading disinclination, in any way, to disturb 
the mourning of the Queen. The loyalty of the English 
people to their present Sovereign is strongly mixed up with an 
affectionate devotion to her person. You find this feeling prev- 
alent in all circles and classes. 

" Then, as regards the question of cotton supply, which we 
had supposed would speedily have disturbed the level of their 
neutral policy. This state of things manifestly exists. The con- 
stantly increasing supply of cotton, with a corresponding de- 
mand for its fabric, for a few years past, it would seem, has so 
stimulated the manufactories, that the blockade found the 
markets overstocked with fabrics, and very soon, the price of the 
fabric bore a very diminished relative value to that of the raw 
material. 

" This disproportionate ratio has since continued ; the price 
of the fabric, though constantly rising, still not keeping pace 
with the rise in the raw material, it would follow, that until prices 
approached a level, it would not be the interest of the manu- 
facturer to cheapen the latter, until the stock of the former, on 
hand should be disposed of. Thus it is, that even in Lancashire 
and other manufacturing districts, no open demonstration has 
been made against the blockade. 

" True, that more than one-third of the mills have been 
stopped, and the rest working only on half time, still the owners 
find it to their account not to complain, and they silence the 
working classes by sufficient alms, in aid of parish relief, to keep 
them from actual starvation. The supply of cotton, however, is 
now very low, and the factitious state of things, above referred 
to, can not last very long. 

" The better to keep the public mind quiet, too, on the sub- 
ject of cotton supply, great efiforts have been made, as you are 
aware, to produce the belief, that in any event adequate supplies 
of this material will be ensured by the increase of its culture 
in India ; still I do not find that much faith is given to such 
promises, by those who ought best to know. 

" All seem to agree, that the hope either of reunion or re- 
construction is gone, but that is accompanied by the idea, 
strongly confirmed by our recent disasters on the Cumberland 



266 ^^^^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

River, that the South will be forced to yield the Border States, 
or at least Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Maryland, to the 
North; and that the Government at Washington will be ready, 
in the course of two or three months, to agree to the separation 
on these terms; looking thus to a speedy end to the war, they 
are the more disinclined to any course which would seem to 
commit this country to either side. 

" Members of both Houses call on me frequently, seeking 
information, and I am always sedulous and earnest to disabuse 
their minds of all belief that the Confederate Government will 
lay down its arms, on any such terms, but that, cost what it may, 
the States now confederated will preserve their integrity, con- 
senting only to part with any of the Border States, when it shall 
appear, by the free and unbiased vote of the people of such 
State, that they prefer to cast their lot with the North, a con- 
tingency which none in the South believe will ever arise. 

" The late reverses at *Fort Henry and Fort Donelson have 
had an unfortunate effect upon the minds of our friends here, 
as was naturally to be expected. I assured them that at most, 
they are to be considered only as driving in or capturing out- 
posts, by the invading army, and by no means, should be taken 
to foreshadow the result of the general battle, which seems im- 
pending on our Western frontier. 

" The steamer ' Annie Childs,' late from North Carolina, 
arrived at Liverpool two days ago, having left Wilmington, 
N. C, on the 5th of February, and successfully run the blockade, 
with a cargo of cotton and turpentine. I received by her, private 
letters from home, but no dispatches. It is of great importance 
that we should be kept advised here, as far as practicable, of 
the conduct and prospects of the war, as to which we get nothing 
from the South but meagre and distorted accounts, through the 
Northern press. Perhaps by proper instructions to the collec- 
tors at the Southern ports, who would know when vessels are 
about to leave for any neutral port, they might be directed to 
send, at least, the latest Southern newspapers. 

" I have seen through the Northern papers that Mr, Hunter 
has been transferred to the Senate ; but I have not heard who has 



*The official dispatch from Richmond, giving reports of these events, 
will be found in the next chapter. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



267 



succeeded him in the Department of State, and thus address this 
dispatch accordingly. 

" I have the honour to be, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

Copy of Mr. SHdell's memorandum of Mr. Lindsay's inter- 
view with the Emperor Napoleon, spoken of in Mr. Mason's 
dispatch of April 21st: 

" Mr. Lindsay had on April nth, by appointment, an inter- 
view with the Emperor, having received on the previous evening 
a note from Mr. Moquard, his private secretary, inviting his 
presence at the Tuilleries at i p. m. The Emperor said to Mr. 
Lindsay that he had been led to desire the interview by Mr. 
Thouvenal, Secretary of Foreign Aflfairs, having been informed 
by Mr. Rouher, Minister of Commerce, of a conversation which 
he had with Mr. Lindsay that morning. 

" After some preliminary conversation about the navigation 
laws of France, the scheme of establishing a line of steamers 
from Bordeaux to New Orleans under the patronage of the 
French Government was spoken of. This, of course, led to the 
American question. Mr. Lindsay spoke of the Federal blockade 
as being ineffectual, and not in accordance with the Fourth 
Article of the Declaration of the Congress of Paris, and mem- 
tioned facts in support of his opinion ; the Emperor fully con- 
curred in Mr. Lindsay's opinion, and said he would long since 
have declared the inefficiency of the blockade, and taken the 
necessary steps to put an end to it, but that he could not obtain 
the concurrence of the English ministry, and that he had been, 
and was still, unwilling to act without it. That M. Thouvenal 
had twice addressed Lord Cowley, the British minister, represen- 
tations to this effect, but had only received evasive responses. 
The dates of those representations were not mentioned by the 
Emperor, but M. Rouher had said to Mr. Lindsay that the 
first had been made during the past summer, and the other about 
three weeks since. Mr. Lindsay then adverted to the present 
sufferings of the labouring classes of France and England, 
mainly caused by the interruption of the supply of cotton from 
the Confederate States, sufferings which even now were cal- 
culated to excite very serious apprehensions in both countries. 



268 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

but which were from week to week becoming more aggravated, 
and which in two or three months would become absolutely in- 
tolerable. That the time for action had arrived, for if the remedy 
was not soon applied, the most fearful consequences might be 
anticipated. To all these remarks the Emperor gave his most 
unqualified assent, but asked what was the remedy. Mr. 
Lindsay said that the recognition of the Confederate States 
would do much to mitigate the danger; that if the two powers 
were not prepared to act immediately, some other neutral nations 
might take the initiative, and that being thus taken, France and 
England might invoke the example and follow it. He named 
especially Spain and Belgium, but the Emperor replied that he 
did not think that Spain would be willing to assume the respon- 
sibility of putting herself in the breach, and that as to Belgium, 
England was the proper power to make the suggestion. 

" Mr. Lindsay then went on to say, that not only the 
interest of Europe required the war to be put a stop to, but that 
every principle of humanity demanded prompt intervention to 
stop so dreadful an effusion of blood, and the mutual exhaustion 
of both parties ; that everybody who knew anything of the feel- 
ing of hostility between the two sections was convinced that the 
Union could not be restored, and that even if the South were 
overrun, she could never be subjugated; that she was carrying 
on a most unequal contest, rendered still more unequal by the 
submission of neutral powers to an inefficient blockade, that 
while professing to be neutral, they were not so in fact, as the 
Northern States were receiving unlimited supplies of arms, 
munitions of war, clothing, and of every article necessary for 
the support of their armies, while the South was effectually cut 
off from supplies of every kind, which, being a purely agricul- 
tural people, they could not manufacture for themselves. To 
these remarks the Emperor also fully assented. Mr. Lindsay 
went on to say that the North was not making war, as many 
pretended, for the abolition of slavery, but to subjugate the 
South in order to reestablish their protective tariff, and to 
restore their monopoly of Southern markets. That for this 
purpose it was only necessary to refer to Mr. Lincoln's inau- 
gural and messages, and to the proclamation of his generals ; 
he referred to the continued existence of slavery in the District 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 269 

of Columbia, which might have been put an end to a year ago. 
That he knew many Northern men, and had a very extensive 
correspondence with them, and that all agreed that not one 
Northern man in ten desired the abolition of slavery, for the sim- 
ple reason that they knew it would be destructive of their own 
interests. The Emperor said that he believed that this was a 
true statement of the case; what then was to be done? He 
could not again address the English Ministry through official 
channels without some reason to believe that his representa- 
tions would receive a favourable response, that he was prepared 
to act promptly and decidedly; that he would at once dispatch 
a formidable fleet to the mouth of the Mississippi if England 
would send an equal force ; that they would demand free ingress 
and egress for their merchantmen with their cargoes of goods and 
supplies of cotton, which were essential to the world. He au- 
thorized Mr. Lindsay to make this statement to Lord Cowley, 
and to ascertain whether he would recommend the course in- 
dicated to his Government, and further that he should see Lords 
Russell and Palmerston to confer with them on the subject. He 
asked Mr. Lindsay to defer his intended departure for London 
until Sunday night, and fixed Sunday, 11 a. m., for a further 
hearing. 

Dispatch No. 8. 

" Confederate States Commission, 
" London, April 21st, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: 

" Sir : I have the honour to transmit to you a despatch 
from Mr. Slidell, which I brought with me yesterday from Paris, 
I went to Paris with the gentleman referred to by Mr. Slidell, 
when he returned there on the i6th instant, to report the result 
of his mission to England. That gentleman had kindly imparted 
to me here what had passed in Paris between him and 
(the Emperor),* reported in the Memorandum of Mr. Slidell 
herewith. I am now to supply what passed in his second 
interview with (the Emperor). 

" We reached Paris on the 17th instant, and the next day 

*Such portions of this dispatch as are included within parentheses were, 
in the original, in cipher. 



2yo 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



the interview took place. He reported to (His Majesty) that 
(Earl Russell) had declined receiving his communication, on 
the score that he could not communicate with a foreign Power 
except through the regular diplomatic channels — nor did (Lord 
Palmerston) send for him, though in his note to (Earl Russell) 
he said he was equally charged to communicate his mission to 
the former. He, by permission (of the Emperor), however, 
reported the matter to Mr. (Disraeli) as the (leader of the Con- 
servatives). (Lord Derby) was too ill to be seen. (The 
Emperor) seemed disturbed at the manner in which his (agent) 
had been repulsed, and so expressed himself freely — said that 
the two former communications from him, on American affairs, 
through his (Ambassador at London), had been answered only 
evasively, and therefore, he did not choose again to communicate 
(officially) with the (British Government) on that subject, unless 
previously advised that his proposition would be received 
favourably — that (England) seemed to be acting in a strange 
manner towards (France) — that since the friendly interposition 
of the latter, in the aflfair of the (' Trent,' England) seemed 
less disposed to cultivate, or to continue in cordial (relations) 
— said that (Earl Russell) had dealt unfairly, in sending to (Lord 
Lyons) his previous propositions to (England), in regard to 
action on the (blockade), who had made them known to Mr.' 
(Seward), and this latter was an insuperable objection to his again 
communicating (officially, at London,) touching American 
affairs, until he knew (England) was in accord. (Mr. Lindsay) 
reported to (the Emperor) the substance of his interview with 
(Disraeli), which was an assurance that the (Conservative party) 
were of the same opinion with him in regard to the repudiation 
of the (blockade), that if the (Ministry) should coincide with the 
views of the (Emperor) their action would have a unanimous 
(support). But that he (Disraeli) had strong reasons to believe 
that (Lord Russell) had a private understanding with (Seward) 
in regard to American affairs. This latter, particularly, struck 
(His Majesty) as a key to the conduct of (Lord Russell). I 
should add that Mr. (Lindsay), after his first interview with the 
person named, reported all that had passed to the (British 
Ambassador) at Paris, by permission, and had no doubt that he 
had at once sent it to (Lord Russell), so that the latter knew 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



2yi 



fully the purpose of the communication to be made by (Mr. 
Lindsay) when he declined to see him. (The Emperor) did not 
commit himself, as to acting separately, though (Disraeli) had 
given his opinion that if he did so the (British Government) 
would be compelled to follow. On the whole, (Mr. Lindsay) is 
of opinion that any decisive success to our arms, though local, 
would lead (the Emperor) to act alone — or, if none, then 
absence of success, and delays on the part of the enemy. 

"And further, that in any event, this projected movement 
must and will bear its fruits, and that speedily. The gentleman 
referred to is, as you know, a man of highest consideration 
here, and of weight in (Parliament). He is deeply in earnest, 
and strongly disposed to make the most of the power to achieve 
what he is after, which he derives from his backing, on the other 
side of the (channel.) In the meantime, the cry of distress is 
coming up, stronger every day, from the manufacturing districts, 
and as some evidence of the impression it is making, I enclose 
a slip from the London Times, of the 19th instant. 

" I enclose Mr, Slidell's memorandum, under cover with 
this, and have had it copied to send in duplicate, a few days 
hence. Parliament meets again on the 28th of this month, and 
I am not without hope that this new complication may soon 
have its results, and the Ministry give in. My last was my No. 
7, of the i8th of March. I have nothing from the Department 
since my arrival here. Mr. Mann left here for Brussels on the 
17th instant. I must add, that gentleman, in communication 
with us, strongly enjoins that what we derive from him should 
be known only to the President and yourself. 

" I have the honour to be, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 9. 

" Confederate States Commission, 
" London, May 2, 1862. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: 

" Sir : I have the honour to transmit to you, herewith, a 
letter addressed to me by Mr. Spence, of Liverpool, to the end 



zyz 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



that it might be communicated to the Government through you. 
It embodies the substance of a conversation he had with me a 
few days ago. Mr. Spence is the author of a book entitled 
* The American Union,' which was pubHshed here last fall, and 
has already gone through four editions. It has attracted more 
attention and been more generally read, both here and on the 
Continent, than any production of like character; of the many that 
have appeared. 

" He sent a copy of it, through me, to the President, some 
weeks since, which I hope may have reached him. Its general 
purpose was to enlighten the European mind as to the cause 
which brought about the dissolution — to show that to the South 
it was inevitable — that the safety and welfare of the South re- 
quired it, and to put an end, at once, to all expectation of 
reunion or reconstruction, in any form. Besides this work, he 
has been, and yet is, a constant contributor to the London 
Times, in articles of great ability vindicating the South against 
the calumnies from the Northern Government and press, and 
infusing into all classes in England sympathy with us. His 
writings show that he is a man of large research, liberal and 
expanded views. He is about forty-five or forty-six years of age, 
full of enterprise and an able and experienced merchant. 

* " It would seem to me that the suggestions contained in 
his letter of the importance, at a future day, to the Government, 
of such an agency as he suggests, are worthy of consideration. 
I do not believe it could be confided to more capable or efificient 
hands, in England, and on the score of desert, would be a well- 
merited recompense to Mr. Spence for his persistent and valu- 
able labours in our cause. His notion of change in the style of 
the Confederacy, fanciful enough to us, is from an EngHsh busi- 
ness point of view. From a great regard for the meritorious 
services of Mr. Spence, I hope his suggestion may be kindly 
received, and shall be happy to be the medium of communicating 
to him the views of the President. 

" I have the honour to be, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 



*See dispatch No. 6 from Richmond, given in next chapter. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



273 



Dispatch No. 10. 
" Confederate States Commission, 
" May i6th, 1862. 
"Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: 

" Sir : My No. 9, with a communication intended for the 
Government from James Spence, Esq., of Liverpool, goes by 
same conveyance as this. A few days since I received, under 
cover, from the house of Messrs. Frazer, Trenholm and Com- 
pany, of Liverpool, a dispatch from William M. Browne, Esq., 
Secretary of State ad int., dated 13th of March last, and marked 
No. 5. It contained nothing but an account of the then recent 
victory of the ' Virginia ' over the Federal squadron in Hampton 
Roads, accompanied by the official report of the engagement. On 
my arrival here, in January last, I found two dispatches from the 
Department, dated respectively October 29 and November 9th, 
1861, and marked Nos. 2 and 3. I have received none others, 
except No. 5, above acknowledged, and thus Nos. i and 4 are 
missing. I note this, less the Department should suppose I had 
been inattentive to their contents. I hear of occasional arrivals 
at Liverpool from the Confederate States. Only three days ago a 
ship arrived to Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm and Company, with 
communications from the War Department, for Captain Huse, 
its agent in England, but with nothing either for Mr. Slidell or 
for me. 1 am very well aware, whilst unaccredited here, the 
Department can have little to communicate, in the form of in- 
struction or advice — still, it would be desirable to hear occasion- 
ally from the Government, were it only words of encourage- 
ment and hope. In poHtical circles here, constant inquiry is 
made as to what I hear from home ; and when I answer that I get 
nothing, a doubt seems implied that the Government hesi- 
tates to commit itself to persistence in the war, in the midst 
of the trying circumstances in which it is placed. True I leave 
nothing undone to dispel such doubt ; but an occasional letter, 
even referring only to the spirit of our people, and the determina- 
tion of the Government, happen what may, would go far to 
reassure our more timid friends in England, and it is of the 
last moment to keep the public mind here assured that the war, 
so disastrous in its consequences to Europe, will go on, at 
any cost of suffering or distress, until the Federal Government 



274 



LIFE OF JAMEU MURRAY MASON. 



shall lay down its arms and leave the territory of the South. 

" My No. 8, of the 21st of April, with the memorandum from 
Mr. Slidell accompanying it, gave to the Department informa- 
tion of apparent grave moment from France. Lest it may not 
have reached you through the blockade, I have entrusted its 
substance to Mr. Ward (late Minister of the United States to 
China), to be communicated, orally, to the President. Mr. W. 
also bears with this an unofficial note from me to the President, 
referring to it. All is m)^stery with us, touching the late visit 
of * M. Mercier to Richmond, as connected with which I enclose 
an extract from a note received yesterday from Mr. Slidell at 
Paris, dated on the 14th. 

" You will, of course, know the ostensible, as well, I pre- 
sume, as the real purpose of the visit of M. Mercier; but not- 
withstanding the disclaimer of M. Thouvenal to Mr. Slidell, I 
must, until the future shall show the contrary, remain of opinion 
that M. Mercier went to Richmond under orders from the 
Emperor direct, and on a mission which he did not choose 
should, for the time, at least, be made known to England. 

" My No. 8 will have shown that there were reasons why 
intercourse between the Emperor and the Confederate States 
should not be conducted through the usual diplomatic channels. 
He may have chosen that M. Thouvenal should not be able to 
answer Lord Cowley's inquiry as to the object of such mission ; 
and we know here that when the first intelligence came that 
M. Mercier had gone to Richmond, Lord Cowley inquired of 
M. Thouvenal what it meant, and was answered that he had no 
information. And now, this theory gets further confirmation 
in the fact that M. Thouvenal has not yet heard from M. Mercier, 
but is left to Lord Lyon's dispatches to his Government (as he 
reports to Mr. Slidell) to know what a mission of his own Min- 
ister, and of such grave moment, meant. If the orders went from 
the Emperor direct, the return dispatch would go to the 
Emperor direct, and so M. Thouvenal would be left to the dis- 
patches of Lord Lyons. 

" Nor do I find these views at all inconsistent with the 
alleged mission from Mr. Seward, spoken of in the dispatches 
from Lord Lyons, as M. Thouvenal reported them to Mr. Sli- 
*See dispatch No. 6 from Richmond, given in next chapter. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 275 

dell, that I should take as the ostensible, while the real mission 
was known only to the Emperor and his Minister, and I pre- 
sume also to the Government at Richmond. I venture on these 
speculations only that, in some event, the suggestion and the 
reason for it, that the purpose of M. Mercier's visit was not dis- 
closed by the Emperor to any one, may possibly be of service 
to you, as a clue to anything that may be hidden. I send you 
with this, late files of the London Times, from which, inter 
alia, you will see the extent of the distress in the manufacturing 
districts, and the way it is dealt with by the Government. 
" I have the honour to be, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

" 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, 
" London, May i6th, 1862. 
" Hon. Jefferson Davis: 

"My Dear Sir : This will be handed you by Colonel 
Ward, of Savannah, the late Minister of the United States to 
China. I avail myself of his return to make him the depositary 
of the substance of the late dispatches of Mr. Slidell and myself, 
in cipher, to the Department of State, in the event of their not 
reaching their destination. 

" Those dispatches were not sent in duplicate, and Colonel 
Ward is obliging enough, should they not have reached the 
Dejiartment, to be the medium of communicating them, orally, 
to you. 

" The great importance that this information should reach 
you has caused me to entrust it, orally, to Colonel Ward, know- 
ing its safety with him; but the gentleman from whom it was 
derived imparted it to Mr. Slidell and myself, with a request that 
it should not be known to any, except the Secretary of State 
and yourself, which please regard. We have heard nothing more 
from that quarter. 

" Colonel Ward can tell you fully of the state of public 
feeling in England and on the Continent, in regard to American 
affairs. 

" Here, the higher and the educated classes strongly sym- 
pathize with the South, and seem to deplore the coldness and 
inaction of the Government ; but none are disposed to encourage 



2^6 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



the opposition to make an issue with the Ministry on the ques- 
tion either of recognition or of the blockade. 

" The fall of New Orleans will certainl}^ exercise a depress- 
ing influence on counsels here for intervention, in either form ; 
but we are anxiously and hopefully looking for success to our 
arms both in Virginia and Tennessee. In the event of both, or 
even either, if success is decisive, I should look for some decided 
impulse toward intervention. 

" We are all mystified here touching the late visit of M. 
Mercier to Richmond ; and to you, to whom its objects are fully 
known, our speculations would be superfluous ; still, as in certain 
aspects they may not be without value, I have ventured to give 
them, in my dispatch of this date, to the Department of State. 
" With an earnest prayer for speedy relief to our suffering 
country, and best wishes for your health and welfare, 

" I am, my dear sir, 

" Very respectfully, etc., 
" Truly yours, 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 12. 
" Confederate States Commission, 
" London, June 23, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: 

" Sir : My last were Nos. 10 and 11, each dated on the i6th 
of May. No. 11 was merely sending to the President a com- 
munication from a certain Count Brignola containing a theoretic 
financial scheme. In No. 10, I stated that dispatches from the 
Department Nos. i and 4 had not been received, the latest being 
No. 5, dated on the 13th of March. Since then, and within the 
last few days, I have received dispatch No. 4, dateH on the 8th 
of February, from your predecessor, the Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, 
with the documents referred to in the postscript as transmitted 
with it. 

" Looking to the contingency of intervention by Great 
Britain repudiating the blockade, dispatch No. 4 contained the 
views of the President to be impressed upon the Foreign Min- 
ister here, in such event. As things stand at present, there is 
little prospect of intervention in that form, either by Great 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



277 



Britain or France. The President's views, however, are pre- 
sented with great force, and would be equally impressive and 
useful, to enforce the propriety and duty of recognizing the 
independence of the Confederate States, when that may be con- 
templated, and as instructed by the dispatch, they shall be laid 
before the Minister when the fitting moment may arrive. 

" In my No. 8, of the 21st of April, I communicated to the 
Department information then deemed important from France, 
and in a letter to the President of the i6th of May (borne by a 
gentleman to whom it was entrusted and who was worthy of 
full confidence), I told him that the bearer was a depositary of 
the substance of that information to be communicated orally to 
him, in the event of the dispatch referred to not reaching its 
destination. Referring to its substance matter, I have only to 
add that nothing further has transpired concerning it, and we 
are thus disappointed in the hope of results expected from it. 
The occupation of the principal Southern ports by the enemy, 
and the increased rigour of the blockade of those remaining to 
us, resulting from it, gives little hope now of any interference in 
regard to the blockade, and leaves only the question of recog- 
nition. In this connection, I must add that even the recent 
seizure of British ships, under the British flag, and freighted 
with British property, on the high seas, on voyages from ports 
in England to Nassau, and, in one instance, of a British ship, in 
same manner freighted, bound from a port in France to 
Havana, does not seem to have claimed the intervention of the 
British Government. In each of these cases it was said that the 
cargo, in part at least, was alleged by the captors to be con- 
traband. They were referred, under strong representations, to 
the Ministry by the British owners, and the reply given was 
that, on reference to the Law Officers of the Crown, it was 
determined that the ships must abide adjudication in the Prize 
Courts. 

" It was recently strongly rumored here that France had 
proposed to England to offer their joint mediation to the bellig- 
erents ; but on a question put, both in the Houses of Lords and 
Commons, it was declared by Earl Russell in the former, and 
Lord Palmerston in the latter, that no such proposition had been 
made by France, and further, that it was not in contemplation. 



278 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



by this Government, to offer such mediation jointly or separately 
— Lord Russell adding that he considered, at present, it would 
be ' inopportune.' 

" In a note from Mr. Slidell, dated on the 17th instant, he 
says that the determination of France not to act in our matters, 
without the concurrence of England, is unchanged. Still, it 
seems to be well understood in public circles, both here and in 
France, that the Emperor is fully prepared to recognize our 
independence, and is officially urging its expediency upon 
P2ngland. 

" I am in full and frequent communication here with many 
able and influential members of the House of Commons, who 
confer with me in perfect frankness and candour, and who are 
prepared to move the question in the House whenever it may 
be found expedient, and in the attitude of parties here, mean- 
ing the Ministerial and the Opposition, as the Ministry will 
not move, it is not deemed prudent to enable it to make the 
question an issue with the Opposition, and so motions that have 
been projected ' hang fire.' As far as the public is concerned, 
all agree that there has been a complete change of sentiment 
as the war goes on ; both my own intercourse, which is becom- 
ing large, and information derived from all quarters satisfy me 
that the educated and enlightened classes are in full sympathy 
with us, and are becoming impatient at the supineness of the 
Government. The stock of cotton is almost exhausted, and it 
seems fully conceded that no approximation to a supply can be 
looked for in any quarter other than the Confederate States. 
The cotton famine (as it is now everywhere termed) prevailing 
and increasing in the manufacturing districts, is attracting the 
most serious attention. Parochial relief, although the rates have 
been increased beyond anything hitherto known, is found utterly 
inadequate to prevent actual starvation of men, women, and chil- 
dren, who, from such causes, are found dead in their houses. 
Private contributions, coming largely in aid of parochial relief, do 
not and can not remove the sufferers from the starvation point ; 
and very soon they must be left to die, unless aid is afforded from 
the Treasury. When the question is presented in this form, the 
causes which withhold cotton from America will be pressed 
in our favour, with increased force, on the public attention. I 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 270 



enclose, with this, a recent debate in the Plouse of Comijions, 
in which the sources of cotton supply, present and prospective, 
are discussed at much length. 

" I have conferred frequently and freely with Mr. Slidell, 
on the expediency of making a renewed request to the Govern- 
ments of France and England, or to either, for recognition of 
our independence, and I am happy to say that a cordial under- 
standing exists between us to act simultaneously or inde- 
pendently, as our joint judgments may approve. My own 
strong conviction is that it would be unwise, if not unbecoming, 
in the attitude of the Ministry here, to make such a request 
now unless it were presented as a demand of right; and if re- 
fused — as I have little doubt it would be — to follow the refusal 
by a note, that I did not consider it compatible with the dignity 
of my Government, and perhaps with my own self-respect, to 
remain longer in England, but should retire to the Continent, 
there to await the further instructions of the Government. 
I do not mean to say that I contemplate such an immediate 
step, but only if the demand be made and refused, to remain 
longer in England, as the representative of the Government, 
would seem to acknowledge the posture of a supplicant, and 
therefore the step is not to be taken without the most grave and 
mature deliberation. I have consulted with judicious and 
enlightened friends here, amongst the public men who are 
earnestly with us, and they advise against a renewed demand at 
present, whilst they admit it might place me under such neces- 
sity. 

" One of the documents accompanying the dispatch No. 4 
is the statement of Mr. J. W. Zacherie, of New Orleans, relative 
to the outrage perpetrated on him while on board the vessel 
' Eugenie Smith,' but I am not instructed to lay it before the 
Government here, and therefore await further directions. 
" I have the honour to be, etc., 

•' J. M. MASON." 

" 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, 
" London, July 20, 1862. 
" My very dear Wife: Although my fingers, as usual, refuse 
their office, I shall try to make my script intelligible. I have 



28o LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

lately had the great indulg-ence of receiving various letters not 
from home, but, what is to me as dear, from those I left at home, 
and to satisfy you that it is not vain to write to me (molgre the 
blockade), enumerate them, according to their dates. From 
you, my dear wife, and from Anna, at Selma, on February 8th — 
those were long delayed and reached me about a month ago. 
May 25th ; from you at Greensboro, N. C, May 26th, and from 
Ida at Richmond, May 13th; from John Ambler at Richmond, 
May 25th; from you at Greensboro, N. C., May 26th and from 
Kate of same date at Richmond. Thus my latest letters are of 
the date just given, but you may imagine how welcome they 
were, as they assured me of the safety and welfare of those I 
most value on earth ; but since then, how much has happened 
to create apprehensions for those I left behind. We heard in due 
time of the battle of Fair Oaks, before Richmond, on the 31st 
of May and ist of June, and yesterday heard of the apparently 
great battle before Richmond of the 26th and 27th of June. 
These accounts were only through Yankee sources, i. e., by the 
New York papers, but they tell us enough to assure us that we 
achieved a great victory — at what cost? I almost fear to learn. 
Kate's last told me that Jemmy, at his own request and for more 
active service, had been transferred from General Anderson to 
General Griffith's stafT, and was in the army before Richmond. 
I am sure, before the enemy, he will bear himself as becomes 
him. Of Johnny they all speak as he doubtless deserves. God 
bless and preserve these boys ; it is matter of daily lamentation 
that I am not near to watch and guide them. Your hegira has 
deeply interested me : from Selma to Morven, to Charlottes- 
ville, to Richmond, and last to Greensboro, N. C. Your ex- 
perience of the buffetings of the world will be worth an age of 
ordinary life. 

" The Government here is tardy and supine, looking to 
any interference against the Yankees, but the increasing dis- 
tress for cotton, and the late apparent decided successes before 
Richmond, I think will move them. As I have said, we heard 
of it only yesterday, and then had nothing but the meagre and 
garbled accounts furnished by the New York papers — but they 
were enough to cause a stir. I have had visits to-day from some 
of the most eminent and distinguished members of Parliament, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 281 



advising and counselling whether it was now prudent, and in 
what way, to bring the subject before the House of Commons. 
Of course, as this letter is Hable to capture, I can give no details, 
but England is seriously moved; I can at least say that much,' 
and I shall look now speedily for intervention in some form. If 
I am right on the decisive results of the late afifair before Rich- 
mond, I hope, my dear wife, you will find yourself safe in return- 
ing there. I was very much gratified to hear of your kind recep- 
tion by our friends, and that you are satisfied to make it a 
home until better can be done. I do not think things can con- 
tinue as they have been very much longer, and then I look 
cheerfully to the time when you can all join me here. 

" I have been in London now nearly six months, and it has 
grown wonderfully in favour; as a stranger at first, things were 
found formal and difficult, but as time elapsed and acquaint- 
ances extended, I have found far the larger portion of the eHte 
but the type of our best Virginia circles. I am really too much 
occupied in returning and acknowledging the visits of the im- 
mense number who call daily, and of the highest order in their 

classes. Yesterday, for instance, the Marquis of called, 

(I can't give name for fear of Yankee interception), and not 
finding me at home, called again to-day to congratulate me 
upon the success at Richmond. I visited this really noble-man 
at his estate in the country in the Easter holidays, and remained 
four days ; nothing could have been more cordial and genuine 
than the hospitality I have received, all of which awaits you and 
our dear girls when the time comes to embark. 

July 31st. — I have detained the above waiting for an 
opportunity to get it ofT, and now one offers which I trust may 
bear it safely. Since the first date, we have had further news 
of the glorious series of battles that have been fought and won 
for us before Richmond ; but my heart bleeds at the great loss 
of valuable lives they have cost us, and I am all anxiety for the 
fate of our boys, who, I presume, were in the fight. When I shall 
hear who was lost, and who escaped, the Lord only knows. I 
have only to add that I continue in abundant health, and with 
constant love to our dear circle, am, my dear wife, 

" Ever yours, 

" T. M. MASON." 



282 LIFE OF JAMES MLUtRAY MA802f. 



CHAPTER X. 

Dispatch from Richmond Tells of Victory at Hampton Roads— Inaugura- 
tion of Permanent Government Cabinet — Fall of Forts Fisher and Don- 
elson — General Buckner Captured — Reverses at Nashville, Columbus, 
Roanoke Island — Capture of Newbern and Washington, in North Caro- 
lina — Feeling of Southern People — Kesolution of Congress Never to Re- 
enter Union— Battle in Arkansas — Generals McCulIoh and Mcintosh 
Killed — Inefficiency of Blockade — Mr. De Leon's Mission— Recognition 
Would End the War— Victory at Shiloh — General A. S. Johnston 
Killed — Fall of Island No. lo — New Orleans Taken — General B. F. But- 
ler — Visit of M. Mercier to Richmond — Loss of Fort Pillow, Memphis 
and Western Tennessee — General Bragg— Lieutenant Commander Brown — 
General Jackson in Valley of Virginia — Battle of Seven Pines — General 
J. E. Johnston Wounded — General Lee in Command — Battles at Rich- 
mond and Manassas — Lee Enters Maryland — Takes Harper's Ferry — 
Battle at Sharpsburg— General Loring's Success in West Virginia— Gen- 
eral Pope's Orders — Letters from Earl Shaftsbury. 

" Department of State, 

" Richmond, March 13th, 1862. 

" Hon. } antes E. Mason, etc., etc.: 

" Sir : It becomes my pleasing duty to announce to you 
that on Saturday and Sunday last, the 8th and 9th inst., a great 
naval battle was fought at Hampton Roads, in this State, be- 
tween the James River Squadron, consisting of five vessels and 
twenty-one guns, and a Federal fieet of two hundred and ten 
guns, resulting, without serious damage to a single Confederate 
vessel, in the total destruction of two of the most powerful 
frigates of the United States Navy, the serious disabling of two 
others, the sinking of two gunboats, the capture of several trans- 
port steamers, and the defeat and utter rout of the remaining 
vessels of the fleet, amongst which were the steam frigate ' Roan- 
oke/ of forty guns, and the ironclad steamer ' Monitor.' The 
following authentic details have been received : 

" On the morning of the 8th, at 1 1 o'clock, the Confederate 
States ironclad steam sloop ' Virginia ' (formerly the ' Merri- 
mac '), of ten guns, Flag Officer Franklin Buchanan, command- 
ing, attended by the steam tugs, * Beaufort ' and ' Raleigh ' of 
one gun each, left Norfolk harbor and proceeded towards the 
enemy's battery at Newport News, under the guns of which were 
lying the Federal frigate ' Cumberland,' of twenty-four guns of 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



^^^3 



heavy calibre, and the frigate ' Congress ' of fifty. Steering 
directly for the * Cumberland ' and receiving her broadsides at 
point blank range without the slightest injury, the ' Virginia ' 
(at about 3.30 p. m.) struck her amidship with her iron prow, 
literally cleaving open her sides, and then withdrawing, opened 
upon her a terrific fire. In fifteen minutes the ' Cumberland ' 
sank, having on board three hundred and sixty souls, of whom 
not more than one-third escaped. 

" The ' Virginia ' with her bow gun next engaged the ' Con- 
gress/ and at the same time poured frequent broadsides into the 
battery of twenty guns at Newport News. At the end of an 
hour's contest the ' Congress ' was driven ashore in a sinking 
condition. Her colors having been hauled down and a white 
flag run up, our gunboats were dispatched to relieve the wounded 
of the crew. Whilst in the performance of the humane act of 
taking them on board of our gunboats, the commander of the 
' Congress,' in a spirit of unexampled perfidy and barbarism, and 
after he had surrendered the frigate and given us his sword, 
directed the remainder of the crew to turn the guns of the ' Con- 
gress' upon our gunboats. His command was obeyed, and by that 
foul act of treachery Lieutenant Minor and several of our men 
were wounded. Our vessels then opened fire upon the ' Con- 
gress ' and burned her to the water's edge. During the engage- 
ment between the ' Virginia ' and the two frigates, the * Min- 
nesota ' of forty guns, the ' St. Lawrence ' of fifty, and the ' Roan- 
oke ' of forty, came out from Old Point to their assistance. 
The * Minnesota ' ran aground and was badly damaged by the 
guns of our vessels. The ' Roanoke ' and ' St. Lawrence ' put 
back to Old Point. Night having closed in, our squadron with- 
drew to Sewell's Point. 

" On Sunday the ' Virginia ' again opened fire upon the 
' Minnesota,' but on account of the shallow water could only 
engage her at a distance. The ' Minnesota ' was finally got off, 
and towed in a sinking condition to Old Point. During this day, 
the enemy's fleet was reinforced by the ' Monitor,' an iron-clad 
steam battery which engaged the ' Virginia ' for several hours 
at close quarters, but at length retreated precipitately to the 
protection of the guns of Fortress Monroe. In this brilliant 
engagement, lasting through a considerable portion of two days. 



284 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



our loss was but seven killed and seventeen wounded. Amongst 
the wounded were Flag Officer Buchanan, slightly, and Lieuten- 
ant Minor severely, the latter in the treacherous manner above 
related. The loss on the Federal side can not be less than six 
hundred. I herewith enclose an official report of the battle of the 
8th as transmitted on that day to the Navy Department. 
" I have the honour to be sir, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" WM. M. BROWNE, 

" Secretary of State ad interim." 

From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State Confederate States, 
to J. M. Mason, Commissioner of the Confederate States to 
Great Britain, received in London June 29th, 1862. 

" Department of State, 

" Richmond, April 5th, 1862. 

" Sir : The inauguration of the permanent Government of 
the Confederate States having taken place in accordance with 
the Constitution and the Laws on the 22d February last, the 
President determined to make certain changes in his Cabinet, 
and the Department of State was confided to my charge. The 
Cabinet was formed on the 19th ulto., and is constituted as fol- 
lows, viz : 

J. P. Benjamin, of Louisiana Secretary of State 

C. G. Memminger, of South Carolina. . . .Secretary of Treasury 

Thos. H. Watts, of Alabama Attorney General 

Geo. W. Randolph, of Virginia Secretary of War 

S. R. Mallory, of Florida Secretary of Navy 

J. H. Reagan, of Texas Postmaster-General 

" All of these gentlemen have entered on the discharge of 
their duties, except Hon. Thos. H. Watts, who has not yet 
arrived in Richmond. 

" In assuming the charge of this Department under the 
permanent Government, it is deemed expedient to keep the 
archives separate from those of the Provisional Government. 
Plence a new series of numbers will be commenced in the dis- 
patches, and this is numbered ' one.' 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



283 



" The last dispatch of my predecessor bears date on the 8th 
February, and I deem it useful for your information to give a 
brief sketch of the salient events which have occurred since that 
period, and shall henceforth endeavor to keep you promptly 
advised of the current history of public affairs. If possible, you 
shall also be supplied with files of Southern newspapers. 

" The reverses to our arms at Forts Henry and Donelson, 
and at Roanoke Island are of course known to you, but the 
nature and extent of these disasters have doubtless been so ex- 
aggerated by the Northern press that a correct summary may 
be of use. 

" Fort Henry, an open earthwork situated on the banks of 
the Tennessee, mounting eleven guns, was on the 8th day of 
February attacked by a fleet of the enemy's gunboats, seven in 
number and mounting fifty-four guns, while their transports 
landed an army of twelve thousand men with a view to the 
capture of our small force of less than three thousand, stationed 
there for the defence of the batteries. The contest was at once 
seen to be so unequal as to leave nothing to be done but to with- 
draw with the least possible loss. Under these circumstances, 
General Tilghman, in command of the Fort, determined to hold 
it with some eighty men to the last moment, in order to cover 
the retreat of the army. This object was effected, and the forces 
were marched in safety across the land to Fort Donelson on the 
Cumberland River without loss. General Tilghman after sus- 
taining the bombardment of the battery for several hours, and 
having had all his guns dismounted except four, was compelled 
to surrender with the few men, less than sixty in number, who 
remained to serve the guns. 

" Fort Donelson, situated on the bank of the Cumberland 
River, was a work of much greater importance than Fort Henry, 
and covered the approach to Nashville, which as you are aware, 
is accessible to boats of large class at high water. General A. S. 
Johnston, commanding the Western Department, was fully aware 
of the value of this position, and lost no time, nor did he spare 
any effort for its defence. His whole force, however, then sta- 
tioned at Bowling Green, was nominally but 30,000 men, and in 
effective force not more than 24,000. He had in his front General 
Buell, with an army of 60,000 men, while Fort Donelson was 



2g6 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



threatened by the army of General Grant, with a like number, 
and by the gunboat fleet of the enemy flushed with its recent 
success at Fort Henry. The fall of the latter fort had already 
rendered imperative the abandonment of Bowling Green, as the 
possession by the enemy of the Tennessee River cut off the army 
of General Johnston from that of General Polk at Columbus; 
thus leaving it free to the enemy to attack either division with 
his entire force. Under these difficult circumstances, General 
Johnston sent to the aid of Fort Donelson rather more than one- 
half of his small army, retaining the remainder to cover the with- 
drawal of his stores and munitions of war, and to check the 
advance of General Buell and prevent his direct march to Nash- 
ville. After four days' desperate combat, during which the 
enemy's gunboat fleet was greatly damaged, defeated and driven 
back, the constant reinforcements of fresh troops by which our 
small army was incessantly assailed, leaving them not an instant's 
repose, finally succeeded in reducing them to such a state of 
physical exhaustion, that a surrender was deemed unavoidable ; 
and although a considerable body of our men made good their 
escape, together with Generals Floyd and Pillow, the two senior 
generals, the enemy succeeded in capturing the remainder of the 
force, between six and seven thousand in number, together with 
General Buckner and a large number of commissioned officers. 
The victory was dearly bought, as the loss of the enemy in killed, 
wounded and prisoners (the latter taken in a victorious sortie) 
can not have been less than 5,000 men. 

" The capture of Fort Donelson necessarily involved the fall 
of Nashville, which was soon after taken possession of by the 
enemy, who have since remained masters of the northern part of 
central Tennessee. 

" These operations rendered the evacuation of Columbus a 
military necessity, its position on the Mississippi being too far 
North to permit our shattered forces to maintain it against a 
land attack from the combined forces of the enemy, and the 
armament was accordingly withdrawn and the evacuation con- 
ducted with entire success, while a new position was assumed 
at Island No. 10, situated about twenty miles above New Madrid. 

" In the meantime General Johnston, reassembling and re- 
organizing the scattered remnants of the army of Fort Donelson, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



287 



and uniting with a small division under General Crittenden, has 
succeeded in accomplishing one of the most masterly movements 
of the war. Anticipating the enemy, who by their enormous fleet 
of transports on the Cumberland and Tennessee have the means 
of rapid concentration in large masses, and in opposition to the 
advice of all his officers, he succeeded, by a forced march across 
the country, in moving his forces with all their baggage train 
and supplies to Decatur in Alabama, which he reached just in 
time to find himself in front of the enemy who had endeavored by 
a rapid ascent of the Tennessee River to place themselves be- 
tween him and the army of General Polk, now commanded by 
General Beauregard. This movement has united into one grand 
army, the forces of General Johnston, the army which evacuated 
Columbus now commanded by General Beauregard, and a third 
force of about 10,000 men, under General Bragg, withdrawn from 
Pensacola. These with large reinforcements from the States of 
Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi constitute an army that 
can not now number less than 80,000 men, concentrated at 
Corinth. Miss., near which point a great battle is hourly im- 
pending. 

" In the meantime our position at Island No. 10, fortified 
and reinforced, has been the object of unremitting assault from 
the enemies' gunboat and mortar fleet, but after fifteen days' in- 
cessant firing accompanied with no appreciable loss to us, and 
considerable damage to their fleet, they seem to have abandoned 
in despair the efifort to descend the Mississippi River by forcing 
the passage, and to be now awaiting the operations of the land 
forces. 

" The fall of Roanoke Island occurred on the 8th February. 
It yielded to the combined attack of a fleet of gunboats and an 
army of 10,000 men, which succeeded in effecting a landing and 
forcing the capitulation of our troops, about 2,500 in number. 
This disaster derives its importance from the basis thus afforded 
to the enemy (commanding as he does the navigation of the 
Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds) for concentrating forces for ex- 
peditions against the coast of North Carolina, but chiefly for an 
attack on Norfolk in the rear. The gathering forces of the 
enemy on the Peninsula in the neighborhood of Fortress 
Monroe, and the strong reinforcements pouring incessantly 



2gg LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

through Hatteras Inlet to the aid of General Burnside, indicate 
an intention to spare no effort for the capture of Richmond, and 
we are hourly in anticipation of heavy engagements in this 
neighborhood. 

" The army of General Burnside, after the capture of Roan- 
oke Island, has made two further captures, viz ; the towns of 
Newbern and Washington in North Carolina. At the latter place 
there was no defence, the town being quite insignificant, the 
population not exceeding 1,200 or 1,500 souls; but at Newbern 
a very gallant defence was made by about 4,000 men against the 
combined fleet and army of the enemy, and although our forces 
were compelled to retreat, the loss of the enemy can not have 
fallen short of 1,500, while the results of the capture of the town 
are unimportant. 

" It is most gratifying to observe that the series of dis- 
asters of which I have just given you an impartial narration, 
have had the most beneficial effect on the temper, tone, and 
spirit of our people. The long inaction to which we had been 
condemned by the inferiority of our forces had produced its usual 
effects on our troops. A feeling of listlessness ; a growing belief 
that there would be little more fighting ; the irksomeness of camp 
life when unvaried by active service ; the prevalence of camp dis- 
eases ; the desire to revisit home and family ; all had combined to 
produce a state of things under which our army was wasting 
away, and the spirit of volunteering had almost died out. The 
change has been magical. Our people are alive to the magnitude 
of the contest. A stern and resolute spirit is manifested far more 
promising than the unreflecting enthusiasm under which the 
volunteers first rushed to our standard. 

" The whole people are at war with our deadly foe. Nothing 
is wanted but an ample supply of arms and ammunition to place 
on foot the most formidable army of modern times. Entire con- 
fidence in the result of the contest is felt to the very core of the 
national heart, and you need entertain not the slightest hesitation 
in giving every assurance that this contest can by no possibility, 
and under no stress of human power, end in aught but final separa- 
tion between the contending parties. The temper of Congress 
can not be better evinced than by the following resolution, unan- 
imously adopted on the 5th of March : 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



289 



" ' Whereas, The United States are waging war with the 
Confederate States with the avowed purpose of compelling the 
latter to reunite with them under the same Constitution and 
Government ; and Whereas, the waging of war with such an 
object is in direct opposition to the sound Republican maxim 
that ' All government rests only upon the consent of the gov- 
erned,' and can only tend to consolidation in the General Gov- 
ernment, and the consequent destruction of the rights of the 
States ; and Whereas, this result being attained, the two sections 
can only exist together in relation of the oppressor and the 
oppressed, because of the great preponderance of power in the 
Northern section, coupled with dissimilarity of interests ; and 
Whereas, we, the representatives of the people of the Confederate 
States, in Congress assembled, may be presumed to know the 
sentiments of said people, having just been elected by them ; 
therefore be it 

" ' Resolved, That the Congress do solemnly declare and 
publish to the world that it is the unalterable determination of 
the Confederate States (in humble reliance upon Almighty God) 
to suffer all the calamities of the most protracted war, but that 
they will never, on any terms, politically affiliate with a people 
who are guilty of an invasion of their soil and the butchery of 
their citizens.' 

" The sole important success obtained by us during the 
period embraced by this dispatch is the naval victory in Hamp- 
ton Roads, on the 8th and 9th ulto., of which full details were 
given in the dispatches of the Assistant Secretary, then Secretary 
ad interim, under date of 13th March. 

" Far up in Northwestern Arkansas there was fought on the 
6th, 7th, and 8th of March, one of the most obstinate battles 
recorded in history, the result of which, although highly credit- 
able to our arms, can scarcely be claimed as a victory. General 
Earl Van Dorn, in command of the trans-Mississippi Depart- 
ment, having succeeded in effecting a junction between the 
forces of General McCulloch and those of General Price, who had 
retreated from Missouri before overwhelming numbers, deter- 
mined to give battle to the enemy, notwithstanding the great dis- 
parity in arms and equipment of the two forces. The numbers 
on the two sides did not vary materially, being near 30,000 each. 



2go 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



But our troops were principally armed with shotguns, squirrel 
rifles (as they are called by the country people), and in many 
instances not even with them, but with such rude weapons as 
the men could hastily fashion for themselves. The first day's 
combat resulted in driving the enemy from their position by a 
desperate charge, ending near dark, and our troops slept on the 
battle-field. But we lost precious lives. General McCulloch and 
his second in command, General Mcintosh, both fell at the head 
of their columns, and Colonel Herbert, commanding the Louis- 
iana troops, was wounded and made prisoner. The combat was 
renewed next day by a fresh attack from our army on the enemy, 
who had again assumed a strong position some two or three 
miles beyond the battle-field of the first day. The result of this 
second attack was less favorable, owing to the discouragement 
produced in one wing of the army by the loss of their generals ; 
and the combat ended by the withdrawal of each party from the 
field. The enemy retreated into Missouri, and our generals, 
after giving the needful repose to their troops, advanced east- 
ward with a view of co-operating, for the defence of the Mis- 
sissippi River, with the armies of General Johnston and Beaure- 
gard. I subjoin the general order of the Commanding General 
in relation to the battle : 

" ' Headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi District, 

" ' Van Buren, Ark., March i6th, 1862. 

" * The Major-General commanding this District desires to 
express to the troops his admiration of their conduct during the 
recent expedition against the enemy. Since leaving camp in 
Boston Mountains they have been incessantly exposed to the 
hardship of a winter campaign, and have endured such priva- 
tions as troops have rarely encountered. In the engagements 
of the 6th, 7th, and 8th inst., it was the fortune of the General 
commanding to be immediately with the Missouri Division, and 
he can therefore bear personal testimony to their gallant bearing. 
From the noble veteran, who led them so long, to the gallant 
S. Churchill Clark, who fell while meeting the enemy's last 
charge, the Missourians proved themselves devoted patriots and 
staunch soldiers. They met the enemy on his chosen positions, 
and took them from him. They captured four of his cannon and 



LIFE OF JAME8 MURRAY MASON. 



2QI 



many prisoners. They drove him from his field of battle and 
slept upon it. The victorious advance of McCulloch's Division 
upon the strong position of the enemy's front was inevitably 
checked by the misfortunes which now saddened the hearts of 
our countrymen throughout the Confederacy. McCulloch and 
Mcintosh fell in the very front of the battle, and in the full tide 
of success. With them went down the confidence and hopes of 
their troops. No success can repair the loss of such leaders. 
It is only left to us to mourn their untimely fall : emulate their 
heroic courage, and avenge their death. You have inflicted upon 
the enemy a heavy blow. But we must prepare at once to march 
against him again. All officers and men must be diligent in 
perfecting themselves in knowledge of tactics and of camp dis- 
cipline. The regulations of the army upon this subject must be 
rigidly enforced. Officers will recite daily in tactics, and all must 
drill as many times daily as other duties will permit. In every 
company the prescribed roll-calls will be made. The arms will 
be daily inspected, and a careful attention be given to neat police 
of the camp. 

" ' Commanders of brigades will publish and strictly enforce 
these orders. 

" ' By order of Major-General Earl Van Dorn.' 
" I have the honor to be, sir, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN." 

Another dispatch from Richmond was received at same time 
with that given above ; only a short extract is here quoted as 
the same substance is repeated elsewhere in the dispatches : 
" Department of State, 

" Richmond, April 8th, 1862. 

" Sir : I regret to inform you that with the exception of a 
short informal letter to Mr. Hunter, written immediately on 
your arrival in London, the Department is still without any com- 
munication from you. It is not doubted, however, that you must 
have, more than once, forwarded dispatches by such means of 
conveyance as you have been able to discover. In the absence 
of reliable information as to the present condition of public 
affairs in England and the tone and temper of its Government 



2g2 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



and people, the President does not deem it advisable to make any 
change in the instructions communicated to you by my pred- 
ecessor. There is, however, one point on which additional remarks 
may be useful, to which your attention is now invited. 

" You will find annexed a list showing the number and 
character of the vessels which have traded between our ports 
and foreign countries, during the months of November, Decem- 
ber, and January. They exceed one hundred in number and 
establish in the most conclusive manner the inefficiency of the 
blockade which it has pleased neutral nations heretofore to 
respect as binding on their commerce. 

" There are some considerations connected with this subject 
that do not seem hitherto to have been brought to your notice 
and which are suggested by the recently published reports of dip- 
lomatic correspondence and debates in the English Parliament. 

" Prior to the Treaty of Paris the test of the validity of a 
blockade had not become matter of special agreement among 
the leading powers of the earth. ***** j^- ^^as, 
however, with the view, as declared by themselves, of putting an 
end to ' deplorable disputes ' and to ' differences of opinion be- 
tween neutrals and belligerents which may occasion serious diffi- 
culties and even conflicts ' that the Plenipotentiaries of seven 
European nations, including the five great powers, fixed by com- 
mori agreement and 'solemn declaration' the principle that 'block- 
ades, in order to be binding, must be effective, that is to say, 
maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast 
of the emmy." 

Again from Mr. Benjamin to Mr. Mason : 

" Department of State, Richmond, April 12. 

" Sir : I have arrived at the conclusion that the interests 
of the Confederacy required a more liberal appropriation of the 
funds of the Department in our Foreign Service. With enemies 
so active, so unscrupulous, and with a system of deception so 
thoroughly organized as that now established by them abroad, 
it becomes absolutely necessary that no means be spared for the 
dissemination of truth and for a fair exposition of our condition 
and policy before foreign nations. It is not wise to neglect pub- 
lic opinion, nor prudent to leave to the voluntary interposition of 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 203 

friends, often indiscreet, the duty of vindicating our country 
and its cause before the tribunal of civilized man. The Presi- 
dent shares these views, and I have, therefore, with his consent 
and under his instructions, appointed Edwin de Leon, Esq., 
formerly Consul-General of the United States at Alexandria, 
confidential agent of the Department, and he has been sup- 
plied with twenty-five thousand dollars as a secret service fund 
to be used by him in the manner he may deem most judicious, 
both in Great Britain and on the Continent, for the special 
purpose of enlightening public opinion in Europe through the 
press. Mr. de Leon possesses to a high degree the confi- 
dence of the President as a man of discretion, ability, and 
thorough devotion to our cause. He will bear to you this 
dispatch, and I trust you will give to him on all occasions the 
benefit of your counsel, and impart to him all information you 
may think it expedient to make public, so as to facilitate him 
in obtaining such position and influence among the leading jour- 
nalists and men of letters as will enable him most effectually to 
serve our cause in the special sphere assigned to him. 

" A subject of extreme importance to us is the organization 
of some means of communication between Europe and the Con- 
federacy. On this subject I have addressed Mr. Slidell at 
length, believing his position better calculated than yours to 
succeed in obtaining facilities from the dispatch vessels employed 
by the European Governments, as it is understood that in 
France the principle that dispatches are contraband of war is 
not admitted to be in conformity with international law. The 
subject is called to your attention in the hope that you may 
be able to devise some means of private conveyance, however 
expensive, by which we may overcome the great disadvantage 
under which we now labor in this respect. 

" There is one aspect in which the question of our recognition 
by European powers may be viewed, which the President is desir- 
ous should be placed prominently before Her Majesty's principal 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 

" The continuance of the desolating warfare which is now 
ravaging the country is attributable in no small degree to the 
attitude of neutral nations in abstaining from the acknowledg- 
ment of our independence as a nation of the earth. The heat 



20^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

of popular passion, which in the Northern Government controls 
public policy, will not permit their rulers to entertain for a 
moment the idea of separation so long as foreign nations tacitly 
assert the belief that it is in the power of the United States to 
subjugate the South. 

" National pride, the hatred engendered by this war, the 
exasperation of defeat in their cherished hope of subduing the 
South, all combine to render the administration of Mr. Lincoln 
powerless to accept the accomplished fact of our independence, 
unless sustained by the aid of neutral nations. So long as Great 
Britain, as well as other neutral powers, shall continue prac- 
tically to assert, as they now do, their disbelief of our ability to 
maintain our Government, what probability is there that an enemy 
will fail to rely on that very fact as the best ground for hope in 
continued hostilities? 

" Without intending that their policy should be thus dis- 
astrous in its results, it can not be doubted, on reflection, that 
the delay of the neutral powers in recognizing the nationality of 
the South is exerting a very powerful influence in preventing 
the restoration of peace on this continent, and in thus injuriously 
affecting vast interests of their own, which depend for pros- 
perity and even for existence, on free intercourse with the South. 

" There is every reason to believe that our recognition 
would be the signal for the immediate organization of a large 
and influential party in the Northern States favorable to putting 
an end to the war. It would be considered the verdict of an 
impartial jury adverse to their pretensions. All hope of sub- 
mission from a nation thus recognized would be felt to be with- 
out foundation, and thus a few words emanating from Her 
Britannic Majesty would, in effect, put an end to a struggle 
which desolates our country, afflicts mankind, and which, how- 
ever protracted, has for its only possible result that very recog- 
nition which she has now the power to grant without detriment 
to any interest of the British people or throne. 
" I am, sir, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 
"J. P. BENJAMIN." 

The next dispatch (No. 6, from the Department,) was not 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. 201^ 

among Mr. Mason's papers, but was obtained from the Depart- 
ment at Washington. 

" Department of State, Richmond, July 19. 

" Sir : I received on the 5th instant from the Hon. Mr. 
Ward, late United States Minister to China, your two dis- 
patches, Nos. 9 and 10, of the 6th and 15th of May respectively, 
being the first communication received from you since your No. 
3, of February 7. Mr. Wetter and Mr. Ficklin, who had been 
entrusted with previous dispatches from Europe, both arrived, 
but were compelled to destroy their dispatches on being boarded 
by the enemy's gunboats. You may judge, therefore, with what 
anxiety we look for news from your mission. 

" Being thus left without advices and having no opportunity 
of sending dispatches with a reasonable prospect of their reach- 
ing you, I have sent nothing since the departure of Mr. de Leon. 
As he arrived safely at Nassau, you must long since have re- 
ceived the dispatches of which he was the bearer. 

" The letter of Mr. Spence, inclosed in your dispatch of the 
6th of May, was duly communicated to the Secretary of the 
Treasury, and after conference with him, I beg you will inform 
Mr. Spence that this Government has the highest appreciation 
of his valuable and disinterested service in enHghtening public 
opinion as to the true merits of the contest we are now waging, 
and as to the condition, motives, and objects of the people of 
the Confederate States. The President also desires me to convey 
to Mr. Spence, through you, his acknowledgments for the copy 
of the American Union. The work has been read by us both, 
and deserves the tribute which the public has spontaneously 
paid by demanding repeated editions. But in so far as Mr. 
Spence's suggestions of the necessity of our having a financial 
agent abroad are concerned, the Secretary of the Treasury is of 
opinion that the subject is now premature. It is by no means 
certain that we shall require a foreign loan ; indeed, it is not 
even very probable, and the Secretary does not deem it now wise 
or prudent to anticipate in any way a decision as to the line of 
our financial policy when we shall have established our relations 
with the people of Europe. 

" I have nothing to add to the subject of my former dis- 
patches, and shall confine myself to informing you of the most 



2g6 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



important events which have transpired since Mr. de Leon's 
departure. I shall not, however, continue the connected narra- 
tive of my former dispatches, as the great delay in communi- 
cation completely destroys the value of the information. 

" On the 24th of April, the enemy's fleet succeeded, under 
cover of a very dark night, in passing the forts below New 
Orleans. A concurrence of most unfortunate events alone ren- 
dered this possible. A storm in the river destroyed a portion 
of the floating obstructions which connected the two banks of 
the river and left an opening through which the fleet passed 
without being seen till actually past the forts. The fire-rafts, 
which had been provided for lighting the river, were not lighted, 
and the blame of the omission, unpardonable as it was, has not 
yet been fixed, the naval and military commanders accusing 
each other of the fault. The steam ram ' Louisiana,' which 
alone, if in good order, could have stopped the whole fleet, had 
her machinery temporarily disabled and could not move. These 
combined circumstances enabled the enemy to pass, though not 
without heavy loss. The forts were, however, still in our hands 
when a mutiny broke out in one of them, the guns were spiked 
by the mutineers, and General Duncan was forced to surrender 
and is now a prisoner on parole. On arrival of the enemy's fleet 
before New Orleans, a surrender . was demanded but refused, 
although General Lovell had withdrawn all his forces, being 
unable to resist the fleet with infantry alone. Upon the receipt 
of the news, however, that the forts had surrendered, the com- 
mander of the fleet was informed that no further resistance 
would be made, and in a few days afterwards General Butler, 
with six or eight thousand men, entered the city. 

" The press of the civilized world has already informed you 
of the nature of the tyranny exercised over that unfortunate city 
by the brutal commander who temporarily rules over it. The 
order inviting his beastly soldiery to treat the ladies of New 
Orleans as ' women of the town pursuing their avocations ' is not 
only authentic, but has been tacitly approved by his Government, 
which has in no manner indicated an intention to disavow its 
acts. His seizure of the consulate of the Netherlands, with 
$800,000 in gold, belonging to Hope and Company, of Amster- 
dam ; his seizure of merchandise of neutral merchants on the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. zgj 

ground that by buying this merchandise with Confederate notes, 
they had given aid and comfort to the rebellion ; his requiring 
an oath of quasi-allegiance from all foreigners ; his insulting 
answers to the most temperate letters from the foreign consuls ; 
his decree that no person's property or personal rights should be 
respected, unless an oath of allegiance was first taken ; his order 
sending Mrs. PhilHps to solitary confinement on Ship Island for 
laughing when a procession was passing her house ; his murder 
of Mumford for hauling down the United States flag before the 
surrender of the city; his thousand similar acts of atrocity, far 
exceeding the cruelties of Neapolitan or Austrian commanders 
in Italy, all combine in stamping upon him and on the Govern- 
ment which sustains and supports him, indelible infamy. 

"We were quite startled on the 15th April by a dispatch 
from Norfolk, asking, in the name of * Count Mercier, permission 
to visit Richmond in a private capacity. He accordingly 
arrived on the i6th, and immediately came to see me. He stated 
that he had come with Seward's consent and knowledge, but did 
not say that Seward had asked him to come. He represented 
that he entertained an earnest desire to see and judge for himself 
the temper and spirit of our people and Government, and the 
prospect of the duration of the war. 

" He said that he would state frankly that he considered the 
capture of all our cities within reach of the water as a matter of 
certainty ; that it was purely a question of weight of metal, and 
that as the North had undoubtedly a vast superiority of resources 
in iron and other materials for gunboats and artillery, he did 
not deem it possible for us to save any of our cities, and he asked 
me to say frankly what I thought would be the course of our 
Government in such an event. I, of course, took it for granted 
that his visit to Richmond had some motive and was due to some 
cause other than that represented by him, but I accepted the 
interview on the basis chosen by him, and we entered into a long 
and animated conversation as mere personal acquaintances, re- 
newing the relations which formerly existed between us at 
Washington. The result of this conversation has been very 
fairly stated by him, and he left Richmond two or three days 
later, in all appearances thoroughly convinced that the war 

♦Minister from France to the United States. 



2p8 



LIFE OF JAMES MVBRAT MASON. 



could have no issue but our independence, although he thought 
it might last a long time. In the course of conversation he 
remarked that it would be a matter of infinite gratification to 
himself personally, as well as to his Government, if his good 
offices could be interposed in any way to restore peace, and said 
that the only possible solution he saw was political independence 
combined with commercial union. ' But,' he continued, ' how 
can anybody talk to either side? I dare not utter to you a sin- 
gle sentence that does not begin by the word independence, nor 
can I say a syllable to the other side on any basis other than 
Union.' I replied good-humoredly, and, still keeping the con- 
versation on the footing assumed by him of a private and unof- 
ficial interview between old acquaintances, ' Why should you 
say anything to either side? I know your good feeling for us, 
and we require no proof of it, but you know we are hot-blooded 
people, and we would not like to talk with anybody who enter- 
tained the idea of the possibility of our dishonoring ourselves by 
reuniting with a people for whom we feel unmitigated contempt 
as well as abhorrence.' I saw nothing further of him except in 
social parties, at dinner, and in a farewell visit I made him of a few 
moments on the eve of his departure. I do not know, of course, 
what changes may have been made in his opinions about the 
certain capture of our cities by our recent brilliant success at 
Charleston and Richmond, and the abandonment even of the 
attempt to take Mobile, Savannah, or Wilmington. I am very 
much inclined to believe that he really came at Seward's request 
to feel the way and learn whether any possible terms would 
induce us to reenter the Union. If that was the case, his mis- 
sion was a signal failure and has resulted, I think, in good to 
our cause. 

" After the battle of Shiloh, our army continued encamped 
at Corinth, and although so reinforced as to give assurance that 
a brilliant, aggressive campaign was before us, General Beaure- 
gard, for reasons not yet satisfactorily explained, kept his whole 
forces in entrenchments at Corinth, in a very unhealthy locality, 
without attempting anything until his forces, by disease, despond- 
ency and discontent at long inaction, had dwindled down from 
104,000 men to about 50,000. 

" In the meantime General Halleck had advanced by 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAT MASON. 200 

regular parallels, as though besieging a fortress, until Beaure- 
gard was forced to a retreat, the unfortunate results of which 
were very soon disastrously apparent. We lost Fort Pillow, 
Memphis, all of Western Tennessee, and our whole line of 
communication by the railroad from Memphis to Chattanooga. 
His health was bad, and on his leaving the army on a surgeon's 
certificate for four months, the President found it necessary to 
give General Bragg the permanent command of the Army of the 
West. He at once proceeded to reorganize the forces, issued 
an address to inspirit them, and has just commenced active 
operations, which we are confident will result in our reoccupa- 
tion of Tennessee. 

" General Bragg has sent General Van Dorn to Vicksburg 
with a force of some ten thousand men, and that gallant officer 
has succeeded in making such a defense of that important point 
as utterly to destroy the enemy's project of opening the com- 
merce of the Mississippi River, or even of maintaining their 
communications on that important stream. They have been 
repulsed with the loss of several of their boats and have aban- 
doned their attempts to take the town. By telegram, just re- 
ceived, we learn officially that the Confederate steamer (iron- 
clad) ' Arkansas,' of ten guns, has just issued from the Yazoo 
River, dashed into the enemy's fleet of sixteen or eighteen ves- 
sels, including two sloops of war and four ironclad gunboats, 
and has utterly routed the whole fleet, destroying four vessels 
and disabling several others. This exploit of Lieutenant-Com- 
mander Brown is one of the most brilliant of the war. On 
the whole, our campaign in the West is of the most promising 
character; the spirit of the army and people high and hopeful, 
and you may confidently expect good news from that quarter. 

" Early in May the campaign in the Valley of Virginia 
assumed a new aspect under the daring leadership of Major- 
General Thomas J. Jackson. Having been reinforced by a 
division under Major-General Ewell, he commenced an active, 
aggressive movement. On the 9th May he attacked and routed 
the army of General Milroy at McDowell (near Staunton). On 
the 24th, 25th, and 26th May, in three successive battles at Front 
Royal, Lewiston, and Winchester, he cut to pieces the whole 
army of General Banks, and drove it in disgraceful flight across 



^QQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



the Potomac, creating great consternation at Washington, and 
a cry of alarm from President Lincoln, who made hasty and 
urgent appeals for help from the militia of the several States 
to save his Capital. And on the 8th and 9th June, he defeated the 
army of Shields at Port Republic. By the celerity of his marches, 
the promptness of his movements and the vigor of his assaults, 
he cost the enemy the loss certainly of not less than 30,000 
men in this series of battles, besides a vast quantity of cannon, 
ammunition and supplies of all sorts, which fell into his hands 
and were secured for our services. In these battles Brigadier- 
General Richard Taylor, of Louisiana, particularly distinguished 
himself, and has been warmly recommended by his commander 
for promotion. On the i6th June, the enemy, in heavy force, 
made a desperate attempt to carry one of our entrenched ad- 
vanced posts at Secessionville, on James Island in Charleston 
harbor. After repeated and determined assaults they were re- 
pulsed, with a loss of 667 men, as stated in their own reports, 
and have since withdrawn all their forces from the neighborhood 
of the city and are encamped under the protection of the guns 
of their fleet. 

" On the 31st May, General Joseph E. Johnston attacked 
the troops of the enemy in their position on the Williamsburg 
road, on the south side of the Chickahominy near the Seven 
Pines. The enemy's force was about 25,000. The enemy were 
driven from their position, their entrenchments stormed, bat- 
teries captured, and their camp occupied by our forces. On the 
next day, the ist June, the enemy made a vigorous assault on 
our troops in the position captured by us on Saturday, but 
were decisively repulsed after a light of some four hours. The 
loss of the enemy in killed and wounded and prisoners in these 
two battles was about 14,000; the Confederate loss was about 
6,000. General Joseph E. Johnston was severely wounded in 
the battle of the 31st, and the command of the army devolved on 
Major-General G. A. Smith. On the evening of ist June, the 
President, who had remained on the field during the whole of the 
fighting on both days, assigned the command of the army to 
General Robert E. Lee, who has gloriously vindicated the wis- 
dom of the choice and secured undying renown by the grand bat- 
tle and victory at Richmond. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



301 



" No sooner had General Lee assumed command than he 
changed the whole face of affairs in front of Richmond. He 
formed the design of turning the right wing of the enemy, cut- 
ting him ofif completely from the base of his supplies on the York 
and Pamunky Rivers, and driving him from his entrenchments. 
With this view, and the more effectually to mask his designs, he 
sent several brigades from his army to join General Jackson's 
army in the Valley of Virginia, and he succeeded in creating 
the impression, both with our people and the enemy, that 
Jackson was to advance into Maryland and attack Washington. 
The troops sent to Jackson were, however, met before crossing 
the mountain by his whole army, which thus reinforced, was 
rapidly marched to Ashland, on the Central Railroad, just north 
of Richmond. Jackson's army was then thrown across the 
Chickahominy, turning the enemy's right wing on the afternoon 
of Thursday, 26th of June. So successful had been this movement 
of General Lee, that the enemy was actually engaged in throw- 
ing up entrenchments to resist the hourly expected attack of 
Jackson at Harper's Ferry, on the fourth day after Jackson had 
attacked the right wing of McClellan on the banks of the 
Chickahominy. I can not add to the great length of this dis- 
patch by a description of the battle at Richmond. I confine myself 
to stating that, in an uninterrupted series of engagements, our 
army, about 80,000 strong, met the enemy, admitted to have con- 
sisted of 95,000 effective men; that the army of McClellan was 
driven from its entrenchments, which were of the most complete 
and formidable character that have ever been erected ; that this 
enemy was, as it were, lifted out of his entrenchments and 
hurled to a distance of thirty-five miles ; that the battle and pur- 
suit lasted seven days ; that nothing but the most desperate 
efforts of the enemy, aided by a country covered with swamps 
and thick woods, and affording constant positions of formidable 
strength for defence, saved McClellan's Grand Army of the 
Potomac from utter annihilation ; that the enemy, when at last 
reaching the banks of the James River and taking shelter under 
his fleet of gunboats, was a routed and disorderly mob ; that the 
loss of the enemy is admitted to be 30,000 in killed, wounded 
and prisoners, but it is believed to be much greater; that we 
have captured upwards of ten thousand prisoners, have in 



302 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



our possession fifty-one pieces of his splendid artillery, and 
on Saturday night, the I2th instant, had already received 
in Richmond 31,400 stands of small arms and are still 
rapidly collecting them from the whole line of retreat, so 
that the number taken will scarcely fall short of 40,000 
stands; that the quantity of supplies of all sorts which have 
fallen into our hands is enormous, our wagons being still 
employed, in large numbers, hauling the spoils to Richmond, 
and that the amount of destruction by the enemy of his own 
stores and supplies is such as almost to exceed belief. This 
grand victory was dearly purchased, yet its price was less than 
was anticipated. It is hoped that our total loss in killed and 
wounded will not count up more than 15,000, and a large num- 
ber of these are slightly wounded. Our only loss in general offi- 
cers was Brigadier-General Griffith killed, and Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Elzey wounded, but getting well. Of the enemy's generals, 
we captured Major-General McCall and Brigadier-General 
Reynolds, while Brigadier-General Meade was killed, two other 
generals severely wounded and two others slightly injured. 

" I need scarcely enlarge upon the eflfects of such a mag- 
nificent victory on ourselves as well as on the enemy. As 
regards the latter, you will be able to form your own conclu- 
sions from the Northern papers, which openly avow the impos- 
sibility of obtaining the 30,000 men called for by Lincoln with- 
out a forced draft, and which will tell the story of an impending 
financial crash in the prices current of gold and sterling ex- 
change, the former being at 17 per cent, premium and the latter 
at 28 per cent, to 30 per cent. This Government and people 
are straining every nerve to continue the campaign with renewed 
energy before the North can recover from the shock of their bitter 
disappointment, and if human exertion can compass it, our ban- 
ners will be unfurled beyond the Potomac in a very short time. 
" Our sky is at least bright, and is daily becoming resplen- 
dent. We expect (we can scarcely suppose the contrary possible) 
that this series of triumphs will at last have satisfied the most 
skeptical of foreign cabinets that we are an independent nation, 
and have the right to be so considered and treated. A refusal 
by foreign nations now to recognize us would surely be far less 
than simple justice requires. On this theme, however, I feel 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



303 



that it is quite unnecessary to say more than to assure you of 
the entire reHance felt by the President and the Department, that 
you will spare no effort to avail yourself of the favorable oppor- 
tunity presented by our recent success in urging our right to 
recognition. We ask for no mediation, no intervention, no aid; 
we simply insist on the acknowledgment of a fact patent to the 
world. Of the value of recognition as a means of putting an end 
to the war, I have spoken in a former dispatch. In our finances 
at home, its eflfects would be magical, and its collateral advan- 
tages would be innumerable. 

" It is not to be concealed that a feeling of impatience and 
even of resentment is beginning to pervade our people, who feel 
that in the refusal of this legitimate demand the nations of Europe 
are in point of fact rendering active assistance to our enemies, 
and are far from keeping the promise of strict neutrality which 
they held out to us at the beginning of the war. 

" Not having time to write at length to Mr. Mann by the 
present conveyance, which has offered itself quite suddenly, I 
must beg you to communicate to him a copy of that part of my 
dispatch which does not refer especially to your mission. 

" I am gratified to inform you that the health of the Presi- 
dent is better than I have known it to be for years past. He 
was on the field in person during all the engagements in the 
neighborhood of Richmond. 

"J. P. BENJAMIN, 
" Secretary of State. 

" Hon. James M. Mason, etc., London." 

A dispatch from Mr. Benjamin to Mr. Mason, dated Rich- 
mond, September 26th, 1862, gives a narrative of military events, 
which is here omitted, and then continues as follows : 

" In your dispatch of the 23d of June, you intimate a purpose 
of withdrawing to the Continent to await the instructions of the 
Government in the event of a refusal of recognition by the 
English Government after a formal demand which you contem- 
plated making. The debates in Parliament show that the demand 
was made by you (as well as by Mr. Slidell of the French Gov- 
ernment) and was followed by a refusal on the part of the British 
Ministry to accede to our claim. We therefore anxiously 



304 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



await the receipt of your subsequent dispatches, not know- 
ing whether you persisted in your design of withdrawal 
or have determined to await in England the instructions 
of the President. It is, of course, not possible that the 
President can, until your correspondence shall have been sub- 
mitted to him, determine as to the propriety of such with- 
drawal. A measure so decided could not, as stated by 
yourself, be adopted without the most grave and mature con- 
sideration ; and while the President fully concurs in your opin- 
ion that both the dignity of this Government and the self-respect 
of its accredited representative in England would not permit 
that any attitude susceptible of being construed into that of a 
supplicant should be assumed, many contingencies may arise 
in which the presence (or immediate proximity) of an accredited 
minister near the British Sovereign would prove of great impor- 
tance and value to the public interest. Cases may readily be 
imagined where the Cabinet of Saint James, influenced by the 
continuance of marked successes on our part, might determine 
on the final step of recognition, and change their purpose on 
the arrival of unfavorable intelligence during the delay caused 
by the absence of our Minister^ Your presence for the purpose 
of correcting false opinions, disseminating favorable impressions 
of our Government and people, as well as for affording a com- 
mon center or rallying point for consultation of the parties rep- 
resenting the various interests favorable to our cause, can not 
be otherwise than important ; nor is it at all in conflict with 
established usage that Commissioners accredited for the pur- 
pose of securing the recognition of a new power should be 
delayed much longer even than we have been, before their just 
claims were admitted. In suggesting these reflections, which 
have doubtless occurred to yourself, it is by no means intended 
to intimate that the circumstances under which you were placed 
may not have fully justified the intended step if you have really 
taken it, but rather with a view to enforce your own conclu- 
sions, if the matter is still in abeyance, that it ought not to be 
adopted without very grave and weighty reasons. 

" Herewith you will receive the President's message and 
accompanying documents, including the measures taken for the 
repression of the enormities threatened by the enemy under 
the command of General Pope. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^05 

" I am gratified to inform you that some seventy of Gen- 
eral Pope's officers, including General Prince, were captured by 
General Jackson at the battle of Cedar Run, soon after the 
issue of the President's retaliatory order, and were excepted 
out of the exchange of prisoners of war and held in close 
custody. This wholesome severity produced the desired eflfect, 
and on official assurances received from the enemy, that 
General Pope's order was no longer in force and that he had 
been removed from command, the captured officers were paroled 
for exchange. As I have observed that in some of the English 
journals the facts have been strangely perverted, and the 
action of the President censured as wanting in humanity, 
it is desired that some proper means be adopted by you 
for giving publicity to the facts. The confinement of the 
officers, notwithstanding the threat of great rigor, was the 
same as that of all the other prisoners of war, and no other 
severity was exercised toward them than a refusal to parole 
them for exchange till Pope's murderous orders were set aside, 

" It may not be improper to call your attention, for such 
use as may occur, to the enormous losses suffered by the enemy 
during the present campaign, and to which history furnishes no 
parallel except the disastrous retreat from Moscow. I give you 
the following estimate, which, without any pretence to exact 
accuracy, is reduced much below what is believed to be the real 
state of the case, from sources of information derived mainly 
from the enemy's own confessions. The list includes not only 
the killed, wounded and prisoners, but the losses of the enemy by 
sickness (which was truly terrible) and desertion : 

" I. — McClellan's army lost 100,000 

" He landed on the Peninsula with nearly 100,000 men, was 
afterwards reinforced to 158,000, and left with a remnant of about 
55,000 men. 
" 2. — Pope's army, in the battle of Cedar Run and of 

Manassas Plains 30,000 

" 3. — The armies of Banks, Milroy, McDowell, Shields, 
and Fremont, in the battles of the Valley of 
Virginia 30,000 



3o6 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" 4. — Halleck's army in the West, originally 220,000, 
was reduced by battles at Shiloh and elsewhere, 
by sickness and desertion, to less than 100,000 

men ; but let the loss be stated at only 100,000 

" 5. — On the coast of North Carolina, South Carolina 
and Georgia, Florida and Louisiana, principally 

by sickness and desertion, at least 10,000 

" 6. — In North- and South-western Virginia 5,000 

" 7. — In the battle of Boonesboro' and Sharpsburg. . . . 15,000 

" 8. — In the surrender at Harper's Ferry 1 1,000 

" 9. — In the battle of Boteler's Mills 2,500 

" 10. — In the army of General Morgan at Cumberland 

Gap 5,000 

" II. — In the battle of Richmond, Kentucky 7,000 

" 12. — In the surrender at Mumfordsville 5,ooo 

" 13. — In the campaigns of Morgan and Forrest and 
other partisan leaders in Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee 4,000 

" 14. — In the Trans-Mississippi campaign, including par- 
tisan warfare in Missouri and Kansas 25,000 

" In this enormous number I am not able to state what 
general ofificers were included, but in the single battle of Sharps- 
burg, of the 1 6th and 17th instants, eleven generals of the 
enemy were killed or wounded, among them four major-generals. 
" I am, sir, respectfully your obedient servant, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN, 
" Secretary of State Confederate States." 

From President Davis to General R. E. Lee. 

"Richmond, Virginia, July 31. 
" Sir : On the 23d of this month a cartel for general ex- 
change of prisoners of war was signed between Major-General 
JD. H. Hill, in behalf of the Confederate States, and Major-Gen- 
eral John A. Dix, in behalf of the United States. By the terms 
of that cartel it is stipulated that all prisoners hereafter taken 
shall be discharged on parole until exchanged. Scarcely had 
that cartel been signed when the military authorities of the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



307 



United States commenced a practice of changing the character 
of the war from such as becomes civilized nations into a cam- 
paign of indiscriminate robbery and murder. The General Order 
issued by the Secretary of War of the United States, in the 
City of Washington, on the very day that the cartel was signed 
in Virginia, directs military commanders of the United States 
to take the private property of our people for the conveniences 
and use of their armies, without compensation. 

" The General Order issued by Major-General Pope on the 
23d of July, the day after the signing of the cartel, directs the 
murder of our peaceful inhabitants as spies, if found quietly 
tilling the farms in his rear, even outside of his lines, and one 
of his Brigadier-Generals, Steinwehr, has seized upon innocent 
and peaceful inhabitants to be held as hostages, to the end that 
they may be murdered in cold blood if any of his soldiers are 
killed by some unknown persons whom he designated as * bush- 
whackers.' Under this state of facts, this Government has 
issued the inclosed General Order, recognizing General Pope 
and his commissioned officers to be in the position which they 
have chosen for themselves — that of robbers and murderers, and 
not that of public enemies, entitled, if captured, to be considered 
prisoners of war. We find ourselves driven by our enemies by 
steady progress towards a practice which we abhor, and which 
we are vainly struggling to avoid. Some of the military authori- 
ties of the United States seem to think that better success will 
attend a savage war in which no quarter is to be given and no 
sex or age to be spared than has hitherto been secured by such 
hostilities as are alone recognized to be lawful by civilized men 
in modern times. 

" For the present we renounce our right of retaliation on 
the innocent, and shall continue to treat the private enlisted 
soldiers of General Pope's army as prisoners of war ; but, if after 
notice to the Government at Washington of our continuing 
repressive measures to the punishment only of commissioned 
officers who are willing participants in these crimes, the savage 
practices are continued, we shall reluctantly be forced to the last 
resort of accepting the war on the terms chosen by our foes, until 
the outraged voice of a common humanity forces a respect for 
the recognized rules of war. While these facts would justify 



jo8 ^iPE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

our refusal to execute the generous cartel by which we have 
consented to liberate an excess of thousands of prisoners held 
by us beyond the number held by the enemy, a sacred regard to 
plighted faith, shrinking from the mere semblance of breaking 
a promise, prevents our resort to this extremity. 

" Nor do we desire to extend to any other forces of the 
enemy the punishment meted above to General Pope and such 
commissioned officers as choose to participate in the execution 
of his infamous orders. 

" You are therefore instructed to communicate to the Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the armies of the United States the contents 
of this letter, and a copy of the enclosed General Order, to the 
end that he may be notified of our intention not to consider any 
officer hereafter captured from General Pope's army as prisoners 
of war. Ver)^ respectfully yours, 

" TEFF. DAVIS. 

" General R. E. Lee, Commanding, etc." 

The following letters to Mr. Mason from Earl Shaftesbury 
serve as an example of this " Outraged voice of a common 
humanity " : 

" Spa, August 19th, 1862. 

" Sir : The recent news from America contains an order 
by General Pope for the devastation of the Virginia Valley, and 
for the total disregard, by his troops, of all the rights of private 
property. It contains, moreover, the details of a public meeting, 
held at Washington, where President Lincoln himself, strange 
to say, took the chair, and which, under his sanction, passed 
among others, the following resolutions : ' We deliberately and 
solemnly declare that rather than witness an overthrow of the 
Union, we would prosecute the present war until our towns and 
cities should be devastated, and we and all that are dear to us 
should have perished with our possessions. Let the Union be 
preserved, or the country be made a desert. 

" ' We are convinced that the leaders of the rebellion will 
never return to their allegiance, and, therefore, they shall be 
regarded and treated as irreclaimable traitors, who are to be 
stripped of their possessions, deprived of their lives, or expelled 
from the country.' 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jqq 

" Much as I was prepared to expect from this, as it is 
termed by Mr, Lincoln, ' injurious and unnecessary civil war,' 
I was, I confess, taken aback by such an expression of deliberate 
ferocity from the lips of a civilized and Christian people. I 
have no authority to speak in the name of England, nor can I, 
at this season and distance of place, collect any great number of 
opinions, but I am certain that the first sentiment of the bulk 
of my countrymen, on reading these documents, will be a prayer 
to God that the Confederate States may not be tempted to 
enter upon reprisals, and that the war, if war there must be, may 
be conducted, on one side, at least, according to those military 
rules which humanity has suggested and observed for the miti- 
gation of this fearful scourge of individuals and nations. I 
believe that such a course will be very effective. The late Lord 
Amherst, who had filled the great office of Governor-General 
of India, told me that, at the outset of the Burmese war, a Sepoy, 
having been taken prisoner by the enemy, was crucified and 
left on the line of march as a terror to our troops. Some were 
for reprisals ; but the commanders of the forces were wiser men. 
They took the opposite course. Having treated some of their 
captives with mercy and kindness, they set them at liberty. The 
contrast was felt even by those savages, and that Sepoy was the 
first and last instance, so far as he knew, of such atrocity. God 
grant that your Government may follow this merciful example 
and spare England, and all Europe, another shock, and another 
doubt whether the world, which just now had such bright pros- 
pects, is not rolling back into primitive barbarism. 
" I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

" SHAFTESBURY. 
" Mason, Esq., Delegate from the Confederate States." 

" September 23, 1862. 

" Dear Sir: I am deeply thankful to read in the Times of 
the 20th, that the Confederate Provost Marshal has issued an 
order the very reverse of General Pope's. He has done what 
I ventured to suggest to you should be done, and done it, too, 
on the spot, as the spontaneous act of his Government. This 
is Christianlike and politic. I saw Mr. Slidell in Paris. 

" God grant that this unhappy war may now be closed. 
" Your obedient servant, 
" /. Mason, Esq." " SHAFTESBURY. 



jio 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CHAPTER XL 

Mr. De Leon Arrives in London — Emperor Ready and Anxious for Recog- 
nition; Has Pressed It Upon England — Mr. Slidell Makes Formal De- 
mand for Recognition — Mr. Mason Makes Similar Demand of Earl Rus- 
sell, which is Refused — Russell Declines Interview — Correspondence with 
Earl Russell — Russell's Position Based on Seward's Report of Disaffec- 
tion in South — Discourtesy of Earl Russell — Protest Against England's 
Position on Blockade — Views of President Davis on the Attitude of the 
British Ministry — British Cabinet Not Considered a Fair Exponent of 
the Sentiments and Opinions of the British Nation — President Deems it 
Proper Mr. Mason Should Remain at His Post but Should Refrain from 
Further Communication with Earl Russell Unless it Should be Invited. 

Dispatch No. 13, from Mr. Mason, referred only to a com- 
munication he had recently received from Germany, and which 
he enclosed. Said communication contained instructions for the 
preparation of a newly invented explosive powder, containing 
neither nitre nor sulphur. The invention to be kept a secret, 
pending negotiations with the Governments of Europe regarding 
its introduction, but it was placed at the command of the Confed- 
erate States, should they approve its use, on terms — " a just 
compensation should be made, at a future day, to the inventors." 

Dispatch No. 14. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, July 30th, 1862, 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: 

" Sir : I had the honour to receive on the 29th of June, 
your respective dispatches Nos. i, 2, 3, 4, and 5, brought by Mr. 
de Leon, and dated respectively on the 5th, 8th, 12th, and the 
two latter on the 14th of April. Your dispatch No. i was of 
much value here, as it corrects accounts of the various battles 
fought previous to its date. The English papers having fur- 
nished only the false statements of many of those battles taken 
from the Northern press, I thought it advisable to have ex- 
tracts from the dispatch, referring to the most important of 
them, published here — of course, not stating whence they were 
derived, but vouched for, only, as from a source in the South 
entitled to confidence. 

" Your No. 2 refers, first ; to the interpretation apparently 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



311 



put upon the convention of Paris by Earl Russell, in his letter to 
Lord Lyons, of the 15th of February last. 

" Second, to the character of the blockade and the interrup- 
tion of all commerce between neutral powers and the Confed- 
erate States, by armed cruisers ofif the coast ; and suggesting the 
inquiry whether this Government could not be induced to re- 
quire that the blockade ports should be designated; and third, 
contains a disclaimer of any policy in the Confederate Govern- 
ment to prohibit or discourage the export of cotton. With in- 
structions to lay the views of the President on these subjects, as 
set forth in the dispatch, before the Government here, and to 
press them on its consideration. 

" I accordingly addressed a letter to Earl Russell on the 
7th day of July instant, of which, and of the reply thereto, by Mr. 
Layard, Under Secretary, I have the honour to transmit copies 
herewith. 

" You will remark that in mine to Earl Russell, I quoted 
from your dispatch, the just surprise of the President at the 
terms of his letter to Lord Lyons, with the distinct request that 
he would place it in my power to solve the doubt implied by the 
terms of that letter in regard to the convention of Paris. 

" And, again, that as instructed, and for the reasons there 
assigned, I make a specific inquiry as to the practicability of 
requiring blockaded ports to be designated; and yet the only 
notice taken of the letter is the formal note of the Under Sec- 
retary, acknowledging its receipt ; but without allusion even, far 
less an answer, to the request it contained. This must mean that 
the Confederate Government not having been acknowledged, has 
no right to put questions to the Government here, even in regard 
to a pubUc act entered into by the former at the request of the 
latter. In the dispatch referred to, you establish a right to make 
the inquiry as to the grave addition made by the Government 
here to the convention of Paris, on the fact, that the Confederate 
Government accepted the terms of that convention at the invita- 
tion of this Government, and yet the British Government refuses 
an answer. It is difificult to hold intercourse under such circum- 
stances, and unless otherwise instructed, I shall, as at present 
advised, endeavor in any future communications, so to frame 
them as not to admit of a like discourtesy. 



312 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" The fact is, I entertain no doubt that the British Govern- 
ment does not mean to abide, except at its pleasure, by the terms 
of the convention of Paris; neither the party in power, nor the 
opposition treat with any favour the principle there established 
in regard to blockade ; but notwithstanding the clear and definite 
terms of the convention, hold it as subject to poHcy. Such is 
British faith. 

" I have the honour to transmit also, herewith, copy of a 
letter I addressed to Earl Russell, dated on the 17th of July, 
instant, in regard to certain expressions therein referred to, 
which fell from Lord Palmerston and himself, on American 
afifairs, in reply to questions put to them, respectively, in Parlia- 
ment ; and which, I hope, will have the approval of the President. 
It is notorious here that the Emperor of the French is both ready 
and anxious, either to recognize the independence of the Con- 
federate States, at once, as an act pure and simple; or to effect 
the same object by a tender of good offices as mediator with the 
reserve — if such oflfer be declined by the United States, that 
recognition should follow — and has earnestly pressed England 
to unite with him in one, or the other measure. It is true that 
both Lord Palmerston and Lord Russell have denied that any 
such propositions have been made by France ; but it is equally 
true, or so generally believed, that for diplomatic reasons, such 
propositions, though really pressed on England, were made un- 
officially, and thus, the ministers felt at liberty to answer as they 
have done. 

" One object of my letter was to place on the files of the 
Foreign Office, a disclaimer on the part of the Confederate 
States, of any authority in the ministry to impute to them a feel- 
ing that would be offended bv an offer of mediation. 

" Another object was to enter such disclaimer, in advance 
of a motion of which Mr. Lindsay had given notice in the House 
of Commons, looking to such offer of mediation. 

" Mr. Lindsay's motion was in the following words : 

" ' That in the opinion of the House, the States which have 
seceded from the Union of the Republic of the United States 
have so long maintained themselves under a separate and 
established Government, and have given such proof of their de- 
termination and ability to support their independence, that the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



313 



propriety of offering mediation with the view of terminating 
hostilities between the contending parties, is worthy of the seri- 
ous and immediate attention of Her Majesty's Government.' 

" The terms of the motion you will find very much diluted ; 
they were adopted, however, after much consideration and con- 
sultation, as those most likely to avoid any collateral issues by 
objectants, and yet strong enough to mould the policy of the 
Government. 

" I send, herewith, the debate on the motion taken from the 
London Times, and at which I was present. The motion was not 
pressed to a vote, because no reasonable assurance could be 
obtained, after Lord Palmerston's protest, that it would be suc- 
cessful. 

" It is vexatious and mortifying enough, to find that the 
Government here can not be driven to a decided position. There 
is no question but that the public sentiment of England is 
decidedly with us, and yet among the most enlightened and con- 
siderate men, both in and out of Parliament, though participa- 
ting in it, are found those who yet insist that the responsibility, 
being with the Executive, the Ministry should determine its own 
policy. 

" I have advised Mr. Slidell of the opportunity to send this 
dispatch, so that I hope he, too, will be able to avail himself of it. 
I was informed by Mr. SHdell a few days since that he had had 
an interview with the Emperor, after which he had determined 
to send a formal note to M. Thouvenal asking for recognition, 
and suggesting I should make a like demand here, in order 
that when the fact of his request should be communicated by 
the French Government to Earl Rifssell the latter could not 
reply that no such request had been made of this Government. 
Mr. Slidell has promised to send me notes of what passed at his 
.interview with the Emperor, as well as of an interview which he 
subsequently had with M. Thouvenal, but I have not yet received 
them. I am not aware, therefore, of the circumstances which 
led him to the request at this time, but his judgment of the 
propriety of doing so, after his interview with the Emperor, was, 
of course, conclusive with me. 

" Mr. Slidell presented his letter to M. Thouvenal on the 
23d of July, instant, and I transmit herewith a copy of my letter 



3j^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

of like import to Earl Russell, dated on the 24th, and delivered 
to him on that day. It was accompanied by a private note, 
dated on the same day, asking for an interview, copy of which 
I also transmit herewith, but, up to this time, I have received no 
answer to either. Thus the matter stands at present." 

" July 31st. 

" I had written so far on yesterday, and to-day received from 
Mr. Slidell his dispatches for the Department, and which, by his 
permission, I. have read. They accompany this. I should 
think with him, that if England still holds back, there are incen- 
tives to the Emperor which may lead him to take the advance. 
I have as yet, although seven days have elapsed since my letter 
to Earl Russell asking for recognition and my note requesting 
an interview have been sent in, received no answer. 

" It may be that England will not answer until full com- 
munication has been had with France, but I see no like reason 
for delay in an interview, if that is to be granted. 

" Your No. 3 imparted to me the object of Mr. de Leon's 
mission, in regard to which I had a full conversation with him. 
As the most intelligent counsel and active coadjutor, I put him 
in communication with Mr. Spence, who was good enough to 
come to London to meet him. You will have known Mr, Spence 
as the most efficient and able advocate here, through the press, 
of Southern interests. 

" In the same dispatch. No. 3, is contained the President's 
views, very strongly expressed, of the indirect effect produced 
on the people and Government at the North by the failure of Euro- 
pean Powers to recognize our independence, in that it implies 
a tacit belief in the Powers of the possible subjugation of the 
Southern States. It was chiefly to present those views to Her 
Majesty's Government that I asked for the interview with 
Earl Russell. They are certainly cogent, and would have 
effect with a Government not willingly deaf ; but as my communi- 
cations with this Government may be called for in Parliament, 
before it is prorogued, I thought it better to present them 
orally than to embody them in my letter to Earl Russell. 
Should the interview be declined, I will send them in a supple- 
mental note to the Foreign Office. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. jj^ 

" I observe in Mr. Slidell's dispatches that he has applied 
to the French Government for permission to send and receive 
dispatches through the pubHc ships of France ; if allowed, I sup- 
pose I may have access to them through him. Beyond this, I 
know of no other mode of certainty, with reasonable dispatch, in 
communicating with the Department, unless it can be done as 
follows : The mails from here to Nassau, as I learn, go via New 
York, in a sealed bag, and whilst in transitu are in charge of 
British functionaries. I presume it would not be objected that we 
should send dispatches under cover to Government agent at 
Nassau by this route, although this latter is not certain. From 
Nassau they could be taken by a fast steamer of light draft, to be 
put on such service by the Government. 

" Parliament is to be prorogued on the 5th of August. There 
is great uneasiness in regard to the increasing famine in the 
■■cotton districts, beyond the reach of existing poor rates, now 
increasing fearfully every day, and with the certainty of being far 
worse as winter approaches, — a state of things that must enter, 
whether avowed or no, into the deliberations of the ministry, in 
its action on our affairs. 

" It seems conceded that Lord Derby could take the helm 
at his pleasure, but there are political reasons which deter him 
from ousting Palmerston at present. Indeed it is intimated that 
he is under a committal to the Queen not to move against the 
existing Government during the period of her mourning. The 
Queen has not been in London since my arrival here, now six 
months ago ; but passes and repasses from Osborne to Windsor 
and Balmoral. She remains in great seclusion, and it is more 
than whispered that apprehension is entertained lest she lapse 
into insania." 

" August 2d. 

"The last preceding pages bear date of the 31st of July. 
After they were written, I received a note from Earl Russell 
dated on that day, of which I enclose a copy. You will see that 
the reason assigned for the delay in answering my note of the 
31st of July, was that he might submit a draft of the answer to 
the Cabinet on Saturday, to-day, August 2d. I have little hope 
that it will be satisfactory, still it may be of importance that it 



3lP_ 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



should reach you by the earhest opportunity, and I have been 
able to make arrangements to delay the departure of Mr. Fearn, 
until Tuesday, the 5th instant, in the hope that it will be in time 
to accompany this dispatch. 

" You will see, too, that Lord Russell has declined the inter- 
view I proposed, because he ' does not think any advantage 
would arise from it.' I have no further solution of the apparently 
uncourteous act. 

" Thus cut ofT, I thought it best, in a supplement to my letter 

of the 24th of July, to bring before him the views presented in 

your last Instructions and to ask that, as supplemental, they 

might be considered as part of the letter of the 24th of July. 

The supplement, as you will see, bears date of the ist of August, 

the day following the receipt of his note, and was sent to him 

on the same day, so that it might be before the Cabinet on the 

day following." 

" August 4th. 

" On Saturday night, the 2d instant, I received the answer 
of Lord Russell which he led me to expect would not come in 
to-day. I annex a copy herewith. His note apprised me that it 
was to be submitted to the Cabinet Council, and is to be taken 
therefore, as the judgment of the Government. You will remark, 
that after some recital, the conclusion is made to rest upon the 
statements in Mr. Seward's dispatch, that ' a large portion of the 
once disaffected population has been restored to the Union, and 
now evinces its loyalty and firm adherence to the Government: 
now in insurrection is under five millions ; and that the Southern 
Confederacy owes its main strength to the hope of assistance 
from Europe.' It results that the Government here shuts its 
eyes to accumulating proofs coming by every arrival from the 
North showing that the Northern mind is now satisfied that there 
is no Union feeling at the South ; that in every city that has been 
seized, after vain attempts to seduce its population, the Generals 
have been obliged to disband the municipal authorities, from 
their refusal to give in their adherence ; to imprison all the lead- 
ing citizens, because of their like refusal; that wherever the 
armies approach the population recedes, and fraternizes nowhere 
— I say the Government shuts its eyes to all this, and relies on 
the mendacity of Mr. Seward, as the excuse for its position. It 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



317 



is said that the Cabinet were much divided on the question. I 
can venture to predict nothing, but if our expectations from 
France should not be disappointed, it may yet be that they may 
be dragged into an ungraceful reversal of their decision. 

" I have under consideration the propriety of a reply to Earl 
Russell, commenting freely, but respectfully on its positions, ex- 
posing Mr. Seward, and adducing proofs of the statements on 

which I relied. ,< t i. i.u u 4. u 

I have the honor to be, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

" 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, 

" London, July 7th, 1862. 
" The Right Hon. Earl Russell, 

" Her Majesty's Secretary of State 

"For Foreign Affairs. 

" My Lord : I am instructed by a recent dispatch from the 
Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America, to bring 
to the attention of your Lordship — what would seem to be an 
addition engrafted by Her Majesty's Government on the prin- 
ciple of the Law of Blockade, as established by the Convention 
of Paris, in 1856, and accepted by the Confederate States of 
America, at the invitation of Her Majesty's Government. 

" In the instructions to me, the text of the Convention of 
Paris is quoted in the following words : ' Blockades in order to 
be binding must be effective — that is to say, maintained by a force 
sufficient, really, to prevent access to the coast of the enemy.' 

" And the dispatch of the Secretary of State then proceeds : 

" 'The Confederate States after being recognized as a bel- 
ligerent power by the Governments of France and Great Britain, 
were informally requested by both those powers to accede to this 
declaration as being a correct exposition of international law. 
Thus invited, this Government yielded its assent.' 

" Great then was the surprise of the President, at finding in 
the published correspondence, before alluded to (referring to 
the papers laid before Parliament touching the American block- 
ade) the following expressions of Earl Russell, in his letter to 
Lord Lyons of the 15th of February last: 

" ' Her Majesty's Government, however, are of opinion, that 
assuming that the blockade was duly notified; and also that a 



3i8 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



number of ships is stationed and remains, at the entrance of a 
port, sufificient, really to prevent access to it, or to create an 
evident danger of entering or leaving it, and that the ships do not 
voluntarily permit egress, or ingress, the fact that various ships 
may have passed through it, as in the particular instance referred 
to, will not, of itself, prevent the blockade from being an eflfectual 
one by international law.' 

" You must perceive that the words I have italicized are 
an addition to the definition of the Treaty of Paris of 1856. 

" If such be the interpretation placed by Great Britain on 
the Treaty of 1856, it is just that this Government should be 
so officially informed. Certain it is, that this Government did 
not, nor could it anticipate, that the very doctrine in relation to 
blockade formerly maintained by Great Britain, and which all 
Europe supposed to be abandoned by the Treaty of 1856, would 
again be asserted by that Government. 

" The language of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for 
Foreign Afifairs may not have been intended to bear the con- 
struction now attributed to it, but it is evidently susceptible of 
this interpretation; and we can not be too cautious in guarding 
our rights, in a matter, which must in the future as well as the 
present, so deeply involve the interests of the Confederacy. 

" As a warrant for the assertion in the dispatch of the Sec- 
retary, that the superadded words promulged a doctrine in rela- 
tion to the blockade, formerly maintained by Great Britain, I 
am referred, by him, to the text of the treaty between Great 
Britain and Russia, in 1801, as follows : 

" ' That in order to determine what characterizes a block- 
aded port, that denomination is given, only, where there is, by 
the disposition of the power which attacks it, with ships sta- 
tionary or sufficiently near, an evident danger in entering.' — Art. 
Ill, Sec. 4. 

" The force and effect of these superadded words, it must be 
plain to your Lordship, has materially and most prejudically 
affected, and must continue so to affect, during the existing war, 
the interests of the Confederate States ; nor could this be better 
shown, than by the illustration adopted in the letter referred to, 
from your Lordship to Lord Lyons, that, 

" ' The Fact that various ships may escape through it (the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



319 



blockade) will not, of itself, prevent the blockade from being an 
effectual one by the international law.' 

" It may be readily admitted that the fact that various ships, 
entering or leaving a port, have successfully escaped a block- 
ading squadron does not show that there may not have been ' an 
evident danger ' in so entering or leaving it ; but it certainly does 
show that the blockade was not, in the language of the Treaty of 
Paris, maintained by a force sufficient^ really, to prevent access 
to the coast of the enemy. 

" I have, therefore, the honour to request, for the informa- 
tion of my Government, that your Lordship will be good enough 
to solve the doubt entertained by the President of the Confeder- 
ate States, as to the construction placed by the Government of 
Her Majesty on the text of the Convention of Paris, as accepted 
by the Government of the Confederate States, in the terms here- 
inbefore cited — that is to say : whether a blockade is to be con- 
sidered effective, when maintained at an enemy's port by a force 
sufficient * to create an evident danger of entering it or leaving 
it ' and not alone where ' sufficient, really, to prevent access.' 

" On the subject of the alleged blockade, I have received 
from the Department of State of the Confederate States, and 
am instructed to lay before your Lordship, as Her Majesty's 
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the accompanying lists 
of vessels entered and cleared at the port of Charleston, S. C, 
in the months of November and December, 1861 ; at Galveston, 
Texas, for the months of December, 1861, and January and Feb- 
ruary, 1862 ; at New Orleans, La., for the months of November 
and December, 1861, and February, 1862; at Pensacola, Fla., 
for the months of December, 1861, and January and February, 
1862; at Appalachicola, Fla., for the months of December, 1861, 
and January, 1862; and at Port Lavaca, Texas, in January, 1862. 

" The doctrines of international law certainly are, that war 
does not put an end to commerce between a belligerent and 
neutrals, except at ports and places actually blockaded, and yet 
in the strange and anomalous pretensions of the United States, 
apparently acquiesced in by neutral powers, all commerce be- 
tween neutrals and the Confederate States is prohibited along an 
entire coast line of some twenty-five hundred miles. Armed 
vessels cruise along the coast, and capture neutrals that fall in 



320 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



their way, on the allegation that the entire coast is under block- 
ade. The Confederate States, as is known, have never been com- 
mercial — their carrying trade being almost entirely in the hands 
of other nations. Were it otherwise, little effect would be pro- 
duced upon their commerce by this misnamed blockade. As it 
is, the few ships and other vessels owned by them, have from the 
beginning of the war, been actively and profitably employed in 
carrying their products to foreign ports, and in bringing back 
supplies. Not one in ten, in the large number of voyages so 
made, it is believed, have been captured ; and had that respect 
been exacted for neutral rights, which the law of nations pro- 
vides, commerce between Europe and the Confederate States 
would have been, comparatively, but little interrupted : and in 
this view, I am instructed to enquire whether it may not be 
practicable to require of the blockading power to specify, from 
time to time, the ports claimed to be actually blockaded. Besides 
the large ports (few in number in the Confederate States) there 
are numbers of smaller towns accessible from the sea, where com- 
merce continues to be carried on with foreign nations in the few 
vessels possessed by Confederate owners ; and were blockaded 
ports designated, these latter would at once be open to the com- 
merce of the world in everything not contraband. How far this 
would be advantageous to neutral powers, it remains for them to 
determine. The article of cotton alone taken from such ports 
which are not, and have not been actually blockaded, but com- 
merce with which is intercepted by armed cruisers occasionally 
passing along the coast, would go far to supply the pressing 
demands of European manufacturers. 

" In this connection, I am instructed emphatically to dis- 
claim any policy in the Confederate States Government to pro- 
hibit or discourage the export of cotton. It has been the policy 
of the enemy to propagate such belief ; and perhaps, to some ex- 
tent, it may have obtained credence in Europe. On the contrary, 
I am instructed to assure Her Majesty's Government that if 
Europe is without American cotton, it is because Europe has not 
thought it proper to send her ships to America for cotton. Were 
the blockading power required, strictly to designate the ports and 
places blockaded, and to maintain the same by adequate force; 
from those other ports, thus clearly ascertained to be open to 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



321 



trade, any amount of cotton required would be freely oflfered in 
exchange for the manufactures of Europe. There is no lack 
of this great article of export in the interior of the Southern 
States. It has not been brought to the seaboard, because there 
was little demand for exportation, and it would otherwise be 
subject to depredation by the enemy. Wherever they approach, 
it is destroyed by fire to prevent its falling into their hands — but 
let the blockaded ports be designated, as required by public law, 
and it will freely flow to the coast, at other points, thereby 
opened to the trade of the world. 

" There is one subject further, in connection with this 
alleged blockade, to which I am directed to call the attention of 
Her Majesty's Government. It is^ that vessels of war of the 
United States are stationed ofif the mouth of the Rio Grande, 
with orders not to permit shipments of cotton to be made from 
the Mexican port of Matamoras. It is claimed that cotton taken 
from the Confederate States at Matamoras is lawful subject of 
capture. In proof of this I have the honour to transmit here- 
with, a copy of an extract of a letter from J. A. Quintero, the 
Commercial Agent of the Confederate States at Matamoras, to 
the Secretary of State of the Confederate States. 

" I need not say to your Lordship, that although a maritime 
blockade may, in some sense, be frustrated by the carriage of 
merchandise, through the medium of interior communication, 
from a blockaded to a neutral port, when shipped from the latter, 
it is no breach of blockade ; yet this is now done at the mouth of 
the Rio Grande, a river forming the boundary between Mexico 
and the Confederate State of Texas. 

" I have the honour to be, with great respect, 
" Your Lordship's obedient servant, 

" J. M. MASON, 

"Special Commissioner of the Confederate States at London. ' 

" 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, 
" The Right Hon. Earl Russell, " ^^^^^^^ J"^^ ^^th, 1862. 

" Her Majesty's Secretary of State 

" For Foreign Affairs. 
" My Lord : In late proceedings of Parliament, and in reply 
to inquiries made in each House, as to the intention of Her 



J22 J^Il'^E OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

Majesty's Government to tender offices of mediation to the con- 
tending powers in North America, it was repHed, in substance, 
by Lord Pahnerston and your Lordship, that Her Majesty's 
Government had no such intention at present, because, although 
this Government would be ever ready to offer such mediation, 
whenever it might be considered that such interposition would 
be of avail, it was believed by the Government that in the present 
inflamed or irritated temper of the belligerents any such offer 
might be misinterpreted, and might have an effect contrary to 
what was intended. 

" I will not undertake, of course, to express any opinion of 
the correctness of this view of Her Majesty's Government, so far 
as it may apply to the Government or people of the United 
States. But as the terms would seem to have been applied 
equally to the Government or people of the Confederate States of 
America, I feel warranted in the declaration, that whilst it is the 
unalterable purpose of that Government and people to maintain 
the independence they have achieved, whilst under no circum- 
stances or contingencies will they ever again come under a com- 
mon government with those now constituting the United States ; 
and although they do not, in any form, invite such interposition, 
yet they can see nothing in their position which could make 
either offensive or irritating, a tender of such offices on the part 
of Her Majesty's Government, as might lead to the termination 
of the war — a war hopelessly carried on against them, and which 
is attended by a wanton waste of human life at which humanity 
shudders. 

" On the contrary, I can entertain no doubt that such offer 
would be received by the Government of the Confederate States 
of America with that high consideration and respect due to the 
benign purpose in which it would have its origin. 

" I have the honour to be very respectfully, 
" Your Lordship's obedient servant, 

" T. M. MASON. 
' Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America." 

" Foreign Office, July loth, 1862. 
" Sir : I am directed by Earl Russell to acknowledge the 
receipt of your letter of the 7th instant, and its enclosures 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^23 

respecting the blockade of the Southern coast of North America. 
" I am sir, your most obedient humble servant, 

" A. H. LA YARD. 
" 7. M. Mason, Esq., 

" 5^ Devonshire Street, Portland Place." 

" Foreign Office, July 24th, 1862. 

" Sir : I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of 
your letter of the 17th instant, respecting the intention expressed 
by Her Majesty's Government to refrain from any present offer 
of mediation between the contending parties in North America, 
and I have to state to you in reply, that in the opinion of Her 
Majesty's Government, any proposal to recognize the Southern 
Confederacy would irritate the United States, and any proposal 
to the Confederate States to return to the Union would irritate 
the Confederates. 

" This was the meaning of my declarations in Parliament 
upon the subject. 

" I have the honour to be sir, your most obedient servant, 

" RUSSELL. 
"J. M. Mason, Esq., 

" 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place." 

" 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, 

" July 24th, 1862. 
*' The Right Hon. Earl Russell, 

" Her Majesty's Secretary of State 

" For Foreign A if airs. 
" My Lord : In the interview I had the honour to have 
with your Lordship in February last, I laid before your Lord- 
ship, under instructions from the Government of the Confederate 
States, the views entertained by that Government leading to the 
belief that it was, of right, entitled to be recognized as a separate 
and independent power and to be received as an equal in the 
great family of nations. 

" I then represented to your Lordship that the dissolution of 
the United States of North America, by the withdrawal there- 
from of certain of the confederates, was not to be considered as 
a revolution, in the ordinary acceptation of that term — far less 
was it to be considered as an act of insurrection or rebellion ; that 



J24 ^^^^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



it was, both in form and in fact, but the termination of a con- 
federacy which, during a long course of years, had violated the 
terms of the federal compact by the exercise of unwarranted 
powers, oppressive and degrading to the minority section ; that 
the seceding parties had so withdrawn as organized political com- 
munities ; and had formed a new confederacy, comprising then as 
now, thirteen separate and sovereign States ; embracing an area 
of eight hundred and seventy thousand, six hundred and ten 
square miles ; and with a population of twelve millions. This new 
confederacy has now been in complete and successful operation 
as a Government, for a period of nearly eighteen months ; has 
proved itself capable of successful defence against every attempt 
to subdue or destroy it ; and in a war conducted by its late con- 
federates on a scale to tax their utmost power, has presented, 
everywhere, a united people, determined at every cost to main- 
tain the independence they had affirmed. 

" Since that interview, more than five months have elapsed, 
and during that period events have but the more fully confirmed 
the views I then had the honour to present to your Lordship. 
The resources, strength, and power in the Confederate States, 
developed by those events, I think, authorize me to assume as 
the judgment of the intelligence of all Europe, that the separa- 
tion of the States of North America is final, that under no possible 
circumstances can the late Federal Union be restored ; that the 
new Confederacy has evinced both the capacity and the deter- 
mination to maintain its independence ; and therefore, with other 
powers, the question of recognizing that independence is simply 
a question of time. 

" The Confederate States ask no aid from, nor intervention 
by foreign powers. They are entirely content that the strict 
neutrality which has been proclaimed between the belligerents 
shall be adhered to, however unequally it may operate (because 
of fortuitous circumstances) upon them. 

" But if the principles and morals of the public law be, when 
a nation has established before the world both its capacity and 
its ability to maintain the Government it has ordained, that a 
duty devolves on other nations to recognize such facts ; then, 
I submit that the Government of the Confederate States of 
America, having sustained itself unimpaired, through trials 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. J25 



greater than most nations have been called to endure, and far 
greater than any it has yet to meet, has furnished to the world 
sufficient proof of stability, strength, and resources, to entitle it 
to a place among the independent nations of the earth. 
" I have the honor to be, with great respect, 
" Your Lordship's obedient servant, 

"J. M. MASON, 
" Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America." 



" 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, 

" July 24th, 1862. 

" Mr. Mason presents his compliments to Earl Russell, and 
if agreeable to his Lordship, Mr. Mason would be obliged if 
Earl Russell would allow him the honor of an interview, at 
such time as may be convenient to his Lordship. 

" Mr, Mason desires to submit to Earl Russell some views 
connected with the letter he has the honor to transmit here- 
with, which he thinks may be better imparted in a brief conversa- 
tion. 
■" The Right Hon. Earl Russell, 

" Her Majesty's Secretary of State 

" For Foreign Affairs." 



" Foreign Office, July 31, 1862. 

" Earl Russell presents his compliments to Mr. Mason : he 
begs to assure Mr. Mason that it is from no want of respect to 
him that Lord Russell has delayed sending him an answer to 
his letter of the 24 ult. Lord Russell has postponed sending that 
answer in order that he might submit a draft of it to the Cabinet 
on Saturday next. It will be forwarded on Monday to Mr. 
Mason. 

" Lord Russell does not think any advantage would arise 
from the interview which Mr. Mason proposes, and must there- 
fore decline it." 



326 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



"' 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, 

" August I, 1862. 
" The Right Hon. Earl Russell, 

" Her Majesty's Secretary of State 

" For Foreign Affairs." 

" My Lord : In the interview I had the honor to propose 
in my late note, I had intended briefly to submit the following 
views, which I thought might not be without weight in the 
consideration to be given by Her Majesty's Government to the 
request for recognition of the Confederate States, submitted in 
my letter of the 24th July ultimo. I ask leave, now, to present 
them as supplemental to that letter. If it be true, as there 
assumed, that in the settled judgment of England, the separation 
of the United States is final, then the failure of so great a power 
to recognize the fact in a formal manner imparts the opposite 
belief, and must operate as an incentive to the United States 
to protract the contest. 

" In a war such as that pending in America, where a party in 
possession of the Government is striving to subdue those who, 
for reasons sufficient to themselves, have withdrawn from it, the 
contest will be carried on in the heat of blood and popular ex- 
citement long after it has become hopeless in the eyes of dis- 
interested parties. 

" The Government itself may feel that its power is inadequate 
to bring back the recusant States, and yet be unable at once to 
control the fierce elements which surround it whilst the war 
rages. Such, it is confidently believed, is the actual condition of 
aflFairs in America. 

" It is impossible, in the experience of eighteen months of 
no ordinary trial, in the small results attained, and in the manifest 
exhaustion of its resources, that any hope remains with the Gov- 
ernment of the United States, either of bringing about a restora- 
tion of the dissevered Union, or of subjugating those who have 
renounced it. And yet the failure of foreign Powers formally 
to recognize the actual condition of things disables those in 
authority from conceding the fact at home. 

" Again, it is known that there is a large and increasing 
sentiment in the United States in accordance with these views — 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. -^ 



J^/ 



a sentiment which has its origin in the hard teachings of the 
war as it has progressed. 

" It was beHeved (or so confidently affirmed) that there was 
a large party in the Southern States devoted to the Union, whose 
presence and power would be manifested there, as soon as the 
public force of the United States was present to sustain it, I 
need not say how fully the experience of the war has dispelled 
this delusion. 

" Again, it was believed, and confidently relied on, that in 
the social structure of the Southern States there was a large popu- 
lation of the dominant race indifferent, if not hostile, to the basis 
on which that structure rests — in which they were not interested, 
and who would be found the allies of those whose mission was 
supposed to be, in some way, to break it up. But the same 
experience has shown that the whole population of the South is 
united, as one people in arms to resist the invader. 

" Nothing remains, then, on which to rest any hope of con- 
quest but a reliance on the superior numbers, and supposed 
greater resources, of the Northern States. I think the results of 
the late (or pending) campaign have proved how idle such specu- 
lations were, against the advantages of a people fighting at home, 
and bringing into a common stock of resistance, as a free will 
offering, all that they possessed, whether of blood or of treasures 
— a spectacle now historically before the world. 

" It is in human experience that there must be those in the 
United States who can not shut their eyes to such facts ; and 
yet, in the despotic power now assumed there by the Govern- 
ment, to give expression to any doubt would be to court the 
hospitahties of the dungeon. One word from the Government 
of Her Majesty would encourage those people to speak, and the 
civilized world would respond to the truths they would utter — 
that for whatever purpose the war w^as begun, it was continued 
now only in a vindictive and unreasoning spirit, shocking alike to 
humanity and to civilization. 

"That potent word would simply be to announce a fact which 
a phrenzied mind only could dispute — that the Southern States, 
now in a separate Confederacy, had established before the world 
its competency to maintain the Government of its adoption, and 
its determination to abide by it. 



-,2g LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" To withhold it would not only seem in derogation of truth. 
but would be to encourage the continuance of a war, hopeless in 
its objects, ruinous alike to the parties engaged in it, and to the 
prosperity and welfare of Europe. 

" I have the honor to request that your Lordship will receive 
this as supplemental to my letter of the 24th of July, and subscribe 

" With great respect, your Lordship's obedient servant, 

" T. M. MASON, 

" Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America." 

Lord Russell's Reply. 

" Foreign Office, August 2, 1862. 

" Sir : I had the honor to receive your letter of the 24th 
of July and ist instant, in which you repeat the considerations 
which, in the opinion of the Government of the so-called Con- 
federate States entitled that Government to be recognized of 
right, as a separate and independent power, and to be received 
as an equal in the great family of nations. 

" In again urging these views you represent, as before, that 
the withdrawal of certain of the Confederates from the Union of 
the States of North America is not to be considered as a revolu- 
tion in the ordinary acceptance of that term, far less an act of 
insurrection or rebellion, but as the termination of a confed- 
eracy which had, during a long course of years, violated the 
terms of the Federal Compact. 

" I beg leave to say in the outset, that upon this question of 
a right of withdrawal, as upon that of the previous conduct of the 
United States, Her Majesty's Government has never presumed 
to form a judgment. The interpretation of the Constitution of 
the United States and the character and proceedings of the Presi- 
dent and Congress of the United States under the Constitution, 
must be determined, in the opinion of Her Majesty's Government, 
by the States and people in North America, who have inherited, 
and have, until recently, upheld that Constitution. Her 
Majesty's Government decline, altogether, the responsibility of 
assuming to be judges in such a controversy. 

" You state that the Confederacy has a population of twelve 
millions, that it has proved itself for eighteen months capable of 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j2Q 



successful defence against every attempt to subdue or destroy it, 
that in the judgment of the intelligence of all Europe the sepa- 
ration is final and that under no possible circumstances can the 
late Federal Union be restored. 

" On the other hand, the Secretary of State of the United 
States has affirmed, in an official dispatch, that a large portion of 
the once disaffected population has been restored to the Union, 
and now evinces its loyalty and firm adherence to the Govern- 
ment; that the white population now in insurrection is under 
five millions, and that the Southern Confederacy owes its main 
strength to the hope of assistance from Europe. 

" In the face of the fluctuating events of the war, the alter- 
nations of victory and defeat, the capture of New Orleans, the 
advance of the Federals to Corinth, to Memphis, and the banks of 
the Mississippi as far as Vicksburg, contrasted on the other 
hand with the failure of the attack on Charleston, and the retreat 
from before Richmond, placed, too, between allegations so con- 
tradictory on the part of the contending powers, Her Majesty's 
Government are still determined to wait. 

" In order to be entitled to a place among the independent 
nations of the earth, a State ought to have not only strength and 
resources for a time, but aflford promise of stability and perma- 
nence. Should the Confederate States of America win that place 
among nations, other nations might justly acknowledge an inde- 
pendence achieved by victory, and maintained by a successful 
resistance to all attempts to overthrow it. That time, however, 
has not, in the judgment of Her Majesty's Government, yet 
arrived. Her Majesty's Government; therefore, can only hope 
that a peaceful termination of the present bloody and 'destructive 
contest may not be distant. 

" I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient humble 
servant, 

" RUSSELL. 
" /. M. Mason, Esq." 



The Government at Richmond, having received Mr. Mason's 
communication, inclosing the foregoing correspondence, replied 
in Dispatch No. g, a part of which is here inserted : 



ooo LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



"J. P. Beiijaniiii, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner 
Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Confederate States of America, 
■' Department of State, 
" Richmond. October 31st, 1862. 

" Sir : I proceed to lay before you his (the President's) 
views in relation to the discourteous and even unfriendly atti- 
tude assumed by the British Cabinet in the correspondence 
between yourself and Earl Russell. It results clearly from the 
tenor of these dispatches ; 

" 1st. — That the British Cabinet, after having invited the 
Government to concur in the adoption of certain principles of 
international law, and after having obtained its assent, assumed in 
official dispatches to derogate from the principles thus adopted, 
to the prejudice of the rights and interests of this Confederacy ; 
and that, upon being approached in very respectful and temperate 
terms with a request for an explanation on a matter of such deep 
concern to the people of this country, that Cabinet refuses a 
reply. 

" 2d. — That Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign 
Affairs curtly refuses an unofficial interview with the accredited 
agent of this Government, requested ' for the purpose of submit- 
ting some views (on a subject of the highest importance) which 
may be better imparted in a brief conversation.' 

" 3d. — That in answer to your communication placing cer- 
tain well known historical facts before the British Cabinet as the 
basis of our claim for the recognition of our independence, it has 
pleased Her Majesty's Government to quote from a dispatch 
from Mr. Seward statements derogatory to this Government and 
without foundation in fact. 

" On the first of these points it is to be observed that Her 
Majesty's Government can have no just grounds for refusing an 
explanation of its conduct towards the Confederacy because of the 
absence of a recognition of our independence by the other nations 
of the world. It was not in the character of a recognized in- 
dependent nation, but in that of a recognized belligerent 
that the two leading powers of Western Europe approached 
this Government with a proposition for the adoption of certain 
principles of public law as rules which should govern the mutual 



LIFE OP JAMES MURRAY MASON. ,^2^ 

relations between this people as belligerents and the nations of 
Europe as neutrals during the pending war. Two of these rules 
were for the special benefit of Great Britain, as one of these 
neutral nations. We agreed that her flag should cover enemy's 
goods and that her goods should be safe under enemy's flag. The 
former of these two rules conceded to her as a neutral, rights 
which, during her entire history she had sternly refused when 
herself a belligerent, with the exception of a temporary waiver 
during her last war with Russia. To these stipulations in her 
favor we have adhered with a fidelity so scrupulous that now, 
when we are far advanced in the second year of the war, we are 
without even complaint of injury from a single British subject 
arising out of any infringement of our obligations. Great Britain 
on her part agreed that no blockade should be considered bind- 
ing unless ' Maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent 
access to the coast of the enemy.' On the very first occasion 
which arose for the application of this, the only stipulation that 
could be of practical benefit to this country during the war, 
Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Afifairs, in an offi- 
cial dispatch published to the world, appends a qualification 
which in effect destroys its whole value, and when appealed to 
for an explanation for this apparent breach of faith remains 
mute. This silence can only be construed into an admission 
that Her Majesty's Government is unable satisfactorily to explain, 
while it is unwilling to abandon the indefensible position which it 
has assumed. This Government is the better justified in reaching 
this conclusion from the open avowal by a British Peer in debate 
in Parliament that if England were involved in war the first thing 
she would do would be to retreat from the protocols of Paris. In 
view of these facts, the President desires that you address to 
Earl Russell a formal protest, on the part of this Government, 
against the pretension of the British Cabinet to change or modify, 
to the prejudice of the Confederacy, the doctrine in relation to 
blockade, to which the faith of Great Britain is, by this Govern- 
ment, considered to be pledged. You will justify this protest by 
prefacing it with a statement of the views just presented, and you 
will accompany it with the announcement that the President 
abstains for the present from taking any further action than the 
presentation of this protest, accompanied by the expression of a 



332 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



regret that such painful impressions should be produced on his 
mind by this unexpected result of the very first agreement or 
understanding between the Confederate States and Great Britain. 

" On the second point, of a refusal to accord you a personal 
interview, the President can not persuade himself that it arose 
from personal discourtesy, but believes ft rather to be attributable 
to apprehension by Earl Russell of the displeasure of the United 
States. You may perhaps not be aware that on a former occa- 
sion, when a conference took place between Earl Russell and 
your predecessors, the Minister of the United States near the 
Court of St. James assumed to call Her Majesty's Secretary of 
State for Foreign AflFairs to account for admitting those gentle- 
men to an interview, and threatened that a protraction of relations 
with them would be viewed by the United States as ' hostile in 
spirit and require some corresponding action accordingly ' ; that 
Earl Russell yielded to this assumption and made deferential 
explanation of his reception of our Commissioners, closing by 
saying ' that he had no expectation of seeing them any more.' 
The whole statement, as contained in Mr. Adams's published dis- 
patch to Mr. Seward of 14th June, 1861, will satisfy you that 
Earl Russell does not feel himself at liberty to converse with you 
without incurring the displeasure of the Government of the 
United States. This explanation of the refusal to receive your 
visit, however, does not preclude the necessity of determining the 
propriety of your remainmg in London, although it relieves the 
refusal of any feature either of personal discourtesy or inten- 
tional oflfence to this Government. This question will be better 
considered after a review of the next topic, which is the answer 
made by Earl Russell to your demand for recognition. 

" The proprieties of official intercourse render it embarrass- 
ing to qualify, in appropriate language, the affirmations of Mr. 
Seward which Her Majesty's Government has deemed proper to 
oppose to your statement of historical facts. If you had stated 
those facts as matters of personal knowledge there would, no 
doubt, have been just ground for deeming it far from compli- 
mentary to yourself to have an affirmation from Mr. Seward 
presented as an offset to yours. But your statement of facts was 
a mere presentation of what has now become history ; what was 
as well known to the British Cabinet as to yourself, and suscep- 



LIFE OF JAMES MVRRAl MA80N. 



33J 



tible of verification by all mankind. The quotation, therefore, 
by the Foreign Office of an extract from Mr. Seward's letter, 
containing untruthful allegations, is to be taken rather as indi- 
cating the absence of any well-founded reason for withholding 
compliance with our just demand for recognition, than personal 
discourtesy to yourself. But the spirit of the whole corres- 
pondence between yourself and Earl Russell, his refusal to reply 
to your request for explanation on the subject of the blockade, 
his declining to grant you an interview, his introducing into his 
answer to your demand for recognition Mr. Seward's affirma- 
tions, both unfounded and oiTensive to this Government, all 
combine to force upon the President the conviction that there 
exists a feeling on the part of the British Ministry unfriendly to 
this Governrnent. This would be conclusive in determining him 
to direct your withdrawal from your mission, but for other con- 
siderations which have brought him to a different conclusion. 

" The chief of these is the conviction entertained that on this 
subject the British Cabinet is not a fair exponent of the senti- 
ments and opinions of the British nation. Not only from your 
own dispatches, but from the British press and from numerous 
other sources of information, all tending to the same result, we 
cannot resist the conclusion that the public opinion of England, 
in accordance with that of almost all Europe, approaches 
unanimity in according our right to recognition as an indepen- 
dent nation. It is true that in official intercourse we can not look 
to any other than the British nation ; but it is equally true that 
in a government so dependent for continued existence on its con- 
formity with public opinion, no Ministry, whose course of policy 
is in conflict with that opinion, can long retain office. 

" It is certain, therefore, that there must very soon occur 
such a change of policy in the Cabinet of St. James as will 
relieve all embarrassments in your position arising from the 
unfriendly feelings toward us, and the dread of displeasing the 
United States, which have hitherto been exhibited by Earl Rus- 
sell. In such event, it would be of primary importance that you 
should be on the spot to render your services available to your 
country without hazard of delay ; and in the meantime, you are 
aware of the contingencies which are now constantly occurring 
that render your presence in London valuable in effecting ar- 



jj^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



rangements that could not otherwise be accomplished by the 
agents of the different departments now in Great Britain. 

" On the whole, therefore, it is, by the President, deemed 
proper that you continue to occupy your present post until fur- 
ther instructions, but that you confine yourself to the simple pre- 
sentation of the protest, in terms that shall not seem to imply 
any expectation of an answer; and that you refrain from any 
further communication with Earl Russell until he shall himself 
invite correspondence, unless some important change in the 
conduct and policy of the British Cabinet shall occur, rendering 
action on your part indispensable. ********* 
" I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

" T. P. BENJAMIN." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



355 



CHAPTER XII. 

Mr. G. N. Saunders — Commander Sinclair — Suggested that Money Could 
be Commanded by Use of Obligation for Delivery of Cotton by the Gov- 
ernment — Emperor Strong for Recognition — England's Scant Courtesy 
and French Polished Civility — Private Memoranda Tells of English Sym- 
pathy and Interest, and also of Hospitality and Kindness Extended to 
Him — Acting-Midshipman Andrews, in Command of the Sumter, Killed 
by Master's-Mate Hester — Enghsh Scheme to Raise Money on Cotton — 
French Proposal for Loan — Line of Steamships Between Europe and Con- 
federacy — Agreement with Erlanger & Co. — Emancipation Proclamation 
Met with General Contempt and Derision — Cotton Famine Fearful — The 
Cruiser "Sumter" Sold to a Briti.sh House — English Property Taken by 
the "Alabama" and Earl Russell's Position Thereon. 

Dispatch No. i6. 

" Confederate States Commission, 
"London, September i8, 1862. 
"' Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I have the honour to enclose herewith copy of a 
letter of this date, addressed by me to the Secretary of the 
Navy, as germane to the subject of this despatch. 

" Mr. G. N. Saunders, who arrived here recently, called 
upon me and exhibited to me a contract with the Navy Depart- 
ment, authorizing him to build certain ships for its use, and 
containing an engagement of that department to pay for them 
in cotton, deliverable at any port in possession of the Con- 
federate States, at prices current there at time of delivery. 

" Mr. Saunders had submitted this contract to, and invited 
the co-operation of, the house of Messrs. W. S. Lindsay & 
Company, of London, whose reputation may probably be known 
to you ; but I may add that it is fully and justly established in 
public confidence, and entirely in the interests of the South ; nor 
could the matter be in better hands here. 

" At Mr. Saunders' request, I had an interview with that 
house, and learned from them that, whilst they confidently 
believed the money that was required could be obtained, upon 
the engagement of the Navy Department to deliver cotton in 
the manner proposed, and at the time specified in the contract, 
3^et that it could not be done, unless at a stipulated price ; and 
that after full consideration of the subject in all its bearings, 



336 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



and more especially to the rate of exchange arising out of the 
condition of the South during the war, they fixed the price at 
eight cents in coin, and they were willing to undertake the 
operation on those terms. They said further, that if I, as ihe 
representative of the Government, would modify the contract 
by fixing such price (although fully aware that I had no special 
authority to do so) they would undertake the operation, and 
believed it could be carried through. 

" Although perfectly willing to assume any responsibility 
that might be necessary here to further the public service, yet 
in this instance I thought it best to decline the proposal ; and 
the more readily, as we thought that little time would be lost 
in remitting the question to the Department. And it has 
accordingly been arranged that Mr. Saunders shall go back for 
that purpose, pursuing a route that we think gives the best pros- 
pect of success in getting in. 

" I have to report further that Commander Sinclair, of the 
Navy, came here a month or six weeks ago, with an order from 
the Navy Department to purchase or build a ship, under instruc- 
tions that funds would be supplied him for that purpose out 
of means placed in the hands of Captain Bullock ; but he found 
on his arrival that all those funds had been committed to exist- 
ing arrangements, and he was thus left powerless. There was 
to be taken into consideration, too, the difficulty, if not impos- 
sibility, of commanding exchange in the Confederate States^ 
even at the high rates prevailing, which we understand were 
about two for one, there being, in fact, nothing here to draw 
upon. Under these circumstances, and to enable him to build 
the ship at once, I agreed to approve an arrangement to be made 
with the house of Messrs. Lindsay & Company, and endorse a 
printed form as the form which the transaction will assume. 
You will observe that my endorsement on the bond, imports 
only, that it is issued under competent authority, and as a con- 
sequence, that its obligation will be met by the Government. 
I deduced this from the terms of the order to Captain Sinclair, 
which gave him authority to build, or purchase under an urgent 
necessity, leaving everything to his discretion, coupled with the 
unexpected failure of means. It was clearly and fully under- 
stood that I had no authority to commit the Government, the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



337 



contractors taking the risk of the latter making it good. And 
I had, again, the less hesitation, as the Navy Department hav- 
ing established policy of paying in cotton, the only real responsi- 
bility was as to the price; and the sum required being but sixty 
thousand pounds sterling, this engagement could not embarrass 
the Government in any future like operation. 

" I hope, therefore, that what I have done will meet the 
approbation of the Government. 

" I am fully aware of the great difficulties the Government 
must have in placing the funds in Europe necessary for its use, 
because of the cessation of commerce and the interrupted com- 
munication. I venture to suggest, therefore, that money may be 
commanded here by the use of obligations for delivery of cot- 
ton by the Government on the terms and in the manner ex- 
pressed in the paper inclosed ; that is to say, that the delivery 
shall be made at any port in possession of the Confederate 
States when demanded by the holder of the bond, after reason- 
able — say thirty or more days' notice, or within three months 
or more after a peace. 

" I have every reason to believe that four or five millions 
sterling, or more, if required, could be commanded in this form, 
from the cotton spinners alone. It is perfectly well understood 
that this class is redundant with money arising out of the large 
profits made from stocks on hand when the scarcity of cotton 
developed itself — money that would be immediately invested 
in cotton when it should be again accessible. 

■' Should the Government think it proper to entrust this 
service to me, I shall take great interest in performing it. The 
form of the bond inclosed will convey the idea, but I think the 
price of cotton should be left at discretion — the Government 
fixing a maximum. u j ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^ 

" T. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 17. 

" Confederate States Commission, 
" London, September 18, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I have heard from one or two accredited quarters 
that this question (Recognition) is again to come under the 



M- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



consideration of the British Cabinet in October, and the same 
report has reached Mr. Slidell. 

*' In this posture of aflfairs, I can bu^ hope that the 
reconsideration of the British Cabinet is brought about at the 
instance of the Emperor; and if this is so, I have little doubt 
that a favorable response will be strongly pressed upon it by him. 

" There is no doubt but the Emperor is both willing and 
anxious to lecognize our independence, and seems so to declare 
himself without reserve. I had a note the other day from an 
English gentleman of high position, who told me that he had 
just seen the Emperor at Chalons, and who told him in conver- 
sation that he was, and had been for some time, ready to recog- 
nize us, and spoke rather impatiently of the opposite disposi- 
tion of the British Government. 

" I have apprised Mr. Slidell of the present opportunity, 
though I could give him but short notice, and hope he may 
have time to embrace it for a dispatch. 

" We are all much cheered and elated here at the signal suc- 
cesses of our arms in the series of battles reported from the 
Rappahannock to the Potomac lines opposite Washington, fol- 
lowed up by an arrival yesterday announcing that our forces had 
crossed into Maryland. We have only the Northern accounts, 
but even they are full to show that our victories have been 
complete, and the enemy both routed and disorganized. At 
this distance, and without the power to aid, I am filled with 
emotions of gratitude to those by whose counsels and whose 
courage such great events have been brought about. I look 
with renewed confidence to the efifect which they must produce 
on the pending decision of the Emperor as to recognition. 
" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

" J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M . Mason, Commissioner 
Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Department of State, 

" Richmond, 28th October, 1862. 
''Sir : * * * The subject of a loan based on cotton cer- 
tificates has been fully considered, and you will receive a com- 
munication from the Secretary of the Treasury informing you 
->f the conclusions reached by us after much deliberation. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



339 



" I communicated to the Secretary your tender of services 
in connection with this matter, and he requests me to express 
his thanks and to solicit your aid and cooperation in any move- 
ments that may be made to secure success by Mr. Spence, to 
whom the Government has confided the business, in conse- 
quence chiefly of your recommendation. He had been appointed 
to take charge of other negotiations before the receipt of your 
last dispatches. 

" The President desires me to express his approval and sat- 
isfaction with your conduct in assuming, under, the circum- 
stances, the responsibility of making the arrangements neces- 
sary for the success of Captain Sinclair in his arrangements for 
building a ship. 

" It is gratifying to perceive that you had, as was confi- 
dently anticipated, reviewed your impressions, and determined 
not to withdraw from London without the previous instruc- 
tions of the President. Your correspondence with Earl Rus- 
sell shows with what scant courtesy you have been treated, and 
exhibits a marked contrast between the conduct of the English 
and French statesmen now in office, in their intercourse with 
foreign agents, eminently discreditable to the former. It is 
lamentable that at this late period in the nineteenth century 
a nation so enlightened as Great Britain should have failed yet 
to discover that a principal cause of the dislike and hatred 
towards England, of which complaints are rife in her Parlia- 
ment and in her press, is the offensive arrogance of some of her 
public men. The contrast is striking between the polished 
courtesy of Mr. Thouvenal and the rude incivility of Earl Rus- 
sell. Your determination to submit to these annoyances in the 
service of your country, and to overlook personal slights while 
hope remains that your continued presence in England may 
benefit our cause, can not fail to meet the warm approval of 
your Government. I refrain, however, from further comment 
on the contents of your dispatches till the attention of the 
President (now concentrated on efforts to repair the ill effects 
of the failure of the Kentucky campaign) can be directed to your 
correspondence with Earl Russell. " j ^^^ gjj. 

" Your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN." 



340 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



In contrast with " the scant courtesy of Earl Russell," a 
few extracts are taken from Mr. Mason's private memorandum 
book, which tell of the kind welcome extended to him by many 
English people whose positions in the social and political cir- 
cles of that day are well known : 

Arrived in London January 29, 1862. 

February 9, dined with Hon. W. H. Gregory, M. P. for 
Galway, Ireland, at the Garrick Club ; met Alex. Baring, M. P., 
Mr. Bocock and others. 

February 10, dined with John W. Cowell, Esq. ; met Mr. 
Gregory only. Mr. Cowell is a retired gentleman of family, 
who spent two years in the United States in 1837-38. 

February 11, breakfasted with Richard Cobden, Esq., M. P. 
Same day dined with John K. Gilliat, of the firm of John K. 
Gilliat and Company. Met a party of ladies and gentlemen. 

February 13, dined with Sir James Ferguson; met Lords 
DufTerin and Carnarvon, Mr. Gregory, Mr. Baring and others. 

February 23, dined again with Mr. Cowell to talk over 
American affairs. 

February 28, dined with Lord Overstone, and met a pleas- 
ant party of nobility. 

March 2, a Sunday dinner with Lord and Lady Overstone; 
a family party, and very pleasant. 

March 7, dined with Rev. Ernest Hawkins ; an agreeable 
dinner; some of the clergy and others. 

March 11, dined with Sir Edward and Lady Caroline Ker- 
rison ; met their uncle, Mr. Ellice, and an agreeable party. 

March 22, dined with Mr. Cowell to meet General Sir John 
Burgoyne, son of General Burgoyne, of the Revolution, and his 
daughter and son-in-law. Captain and Mrs. Wrottesley. Lord 
Wrottesley, father of the captain, resides in StaiTordshire, near 
the Gunston Estate, and this dinner to bring us together. 

March 29, breakfasted with Sir Culling Eardley, the great 
humanitarian and emancipationist; met several gentlemen of 
that type, and had a long but temperate discussion on slavery in 
Southern States. 

March 31, breakfasted with Sir Henry and Lady Holland. 
Sir Henry is a physician of great eminence, who attended the 
Prince of Wales to the United States, and Lady Holland a 
daughter of the late Rev. Sydney Smith. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



341 



April 2, lunched with Sir Culling Eardley, by invitation, 
at I P. M.; found a small party of guests; was asked the history 
of the " Fugitive Slave Law " (ascribed to me) and the history 
of the " Dred Scott case." 

April 7, by invitation from Lord Abinger, a peer com- 
manding the Scots Fusileer Guards, went to visit him and dine 
with the regiment mess at Eastbourne ; very rainy and bad 
weather but an agreeable party ; target-shooting by his corps on 
the beach ; returned next day to London, although pressed to 
remain by Lord Abinger. 

April 13, dined with Alex. Baring, M. P., at the " Garrick 
Club"; met the Marquis of Bath, an intelligent and accom- 
plished young gentleman. 

April 23, visited the Marquis of Bath at his seat, Long- 
leat, in Wiltshire ; guests, his uncle. Lord Edward Thyne and 
the Rev. Mr. Fane ; remained until the 26th, and was most cour- 
teously and hospitably entertained. The estate of Longleat 
comprises 15,000 acres. He is thirty-one years of age, and 
married a daughter of Viscount de Vesci, an Irish peer. 

April 30, dined with Lord Campbell Stratheden, at his 
residence, Stratheden House ; met Sir James Scarlett, of the 
Crimean War, the Hon. Mrs, Norton, the authoress, and others. 

May I, at a reception of the Duchess of Sutherland and 
Cromartie. Went with the two Misses Williams, of Tennessee, 
daughters of the late Minister of the United States to Constan- 
tinople. Went at II P. M., and reached the Duchess, to make 
our devoirs about 12; a great crowd of the nobihty, the Crown 
Prince of Prussia, the Duchess and Princess May, of Cam- 
bridge, and others of the Royal family, it was said, were present. 
Got away about 1.30 A. M. Stafford House is, perhaps, the 
largest and most sumptuous in London. The Duke asked me 
to remain until the company were gone, and smoke a cigar with 
him; could not because of my charge of the young ladies. 

May 7, Mr. Gregory told me that Prince Oscar, of Sweden, 
now in London, expressed a desire to see and talk with me on 
American affairs. By his appointment, I called on him to-day 
at 2 P. M. and had a long conversation. The Prince expressed 
himself earnestly on the Southern side, and put many ques- 
tions. I assured him we could never be conquered. A young 



3.2 I'IPE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

and intelligent man of thirty years. With him nearly an hour. 

May 25, dined at the Stafford House with the Duke of 
Sutherland; the Duchess the only lady present; sat near her at 
table and in the drawing-room, after dinner; had much conver- 
sation with her. Her title is " Duchess of Sutherland and 
Cromartie " ; a very pretty and intelligent lady of thirty years ; 
Lord Dufferin and others of the nobility, at table, inter alios 
Baron Rothschild. 

July 6, Mr. Richard Cobden at breakfast with me ; had a 
long conversation on American affairs ; Mr. C. decidedly North- 
ern in his sympathies, but deploring the war; admits his sym- 
pathies with the North because anti-slavery. 

July 12, a visit this morning from Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, 
Under Secretary of State in the Derby Administration. He 
called to have a private conversation on the proposed movement 
in the House of Commons for intervention in American affairs. 
Agreed to call at his house on Tuesday, the 15th instant, to 
visit the Earl of Malmesbury on the same subject. The Earl 
was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in same administration. 

July 16, a visit from the Earl of Malmesbury to talk on 
American affairs. 

July 19, dined with Seymour Fitzgerald, at his residence; 
a large party of M. P's. 

" 54 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, 
" London, October ist, 1862. 
" My Dear Son : The return of Mr. S. to Texas gives me 
the first opportunity of sending you a letter since I left 
home which I could hope would reach you. Deplorable 
as have been the consequences of the war to those we 
value most, yet I am ever filled with joy and gratitude at the 
spirit of our people in braving it, and the indomitable purpose 
to win their independence. England stands amazed at the 
courage, constancy, and self-sacrificing spirit of the South ; and 
notwithstanding the supineness of the Government in refusing 
acknowledgment of our independence, the public judgment of the 
English mind is that independence is established. After such 
repeated disappointments I should hesitate to predict, but I think 
recognition is not very far off. France is both ready and willing. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^j 



but England holds back, and they, it seems, have agreed not to 
act separately. You will have heard how the vandals, whilst in 
Winchester, desolated our dear home, and that your excellent 
mother and sisters had, very prudently, abandoned it in advance. 
I have great comfort in knowing that they are all safe in the 
southern part of the State, and in the midst of a body of friends, 
able and willing to guide and protect them. 

" I have been kindly and hospitably received by society in 
London, both Peers and Commons ; indeed, their highest orders 
are only the types of Southern gentlemen and ladies, simple, genial, 
and unostentatious. If you can get a letter into the hands of 
some friend at Brownsville, who would trouble himself to put 
it in the right channel to reach Vera Cruz or Tampico, it would 
Teach me. Do write if you can, and tell me all that interests you 
and yours. My best love to Ella and dear little Jemmy, and the 
young one, too, who may recollect Grandpa. 
" Yours most afifectionately, 

" T. M. MASON." 
" To George Mason, Galveston, Texas.'' 

Dispatch No. i8. 
" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, October 30, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: 

" Sir : It becomes my painful duty to inform the Govern- 
ment of an occurrence which has recently happened on board the 
Confederate States ship ' Sumter,' lying in the bay of Gibraltar. 

" Captain Semmes and his officers having been transferred to 
the ' Alabama,' the ' Sumter ' was left in charge of a midshipman 
and a boat's crew only — a guard deemed sufficient by Captain 
Semmes. On the 14th of this month I received a telegram from 
Sergeant Stephenson of the Marines, one of those left in charge of 
the ship, stating that Acting-midshipman Andrews (in command) 
had been shot and killed by one of the men named Hester, who 
was master's mate; that Hester had been taken into custody by 
the civil authorities there; and asking for instructions, I imme- 
diately replied, by telegraph, to Sergeant Stephenson, directing 
him. to take charge of the ship and the public property on board, 
and that an officer would be sent at once to relieve him. 



... LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" Lieutenant Chapman, a former officer of the ' Sumter,' 
was then in Paris, on duty assigned to him by the Secretary of 
the Navy. I wrote to him to proceed immediately to Gibraltar 
and take command of the ship. After the death of Midshipman 
Andrews, and the arrest of the master's mate, the only person on 
board having the semblance of authority was the sergeant of 
marines. Some days after, I received a letter, dated on board the 
' Sumter,' the 17th of October, signed by all the ship's crew 
(only nine in number), including the sergeant of marines, 
denouncing, in strong terms, the act of Hester as a ' cool, 
deliberate murder,' and promising that everything should be 
done by those on board to take care of the ship until further 
orders. I subsequently received two letters from a Mr. George 
F. Coonwall, dated respectively at Gibraltar, the 17th and 226. of 
October, informing me that he had been engaged as counsel by 
Hester; and vindicating it on the ground that Midshipman 
Andrews ' had expressed his determination to take the vessel 
out of this port (Gibraltar) and give her up at Algesiras to the 
United States ship ' Supply,' then in the latter port, and threat- 
ened to shoot any one who opposed his purpose.' Mr. Hester 
not being (as he says) able to rely on the crew, adopted this 
fatal course, and believes that he has only done his duty. I should 
have stated above, that in the letter from the crew of the 
' Sumter ' no particulars of tlie affair were given, nor anything 
stated as the cause of the affair except, as in the following para- 
graph quoted from that letter : 

" ' As regards the accusation made by Mr, Hester against 
Mr. Andrews being a traitor, it is, as far as we all know, entirely 
without foundation, for he was one that was beloved and re- 
spected by all who knew him, more especially by his crew.' 

" Lieutenant Chapman came immediately to London on 
receipt of my letter, as the shortest route to Gibraltar, and sailed 
for that port in the mail-packet on Monday last, the 17th inst. 
He should have arrived there yesterday. 

" I instructed Lieutenant Chapman to make a full inquiry 
into the affair and its circumstances, and to report them accord- 
ingly. In the letters of Mr. Coonewall, the counsel, he reports 
the earnest request of Hester that I would provide means for his 
defence, and in his last letter, a like request that I would take 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASOIT. ^^^ 



measures to have the prisoner restored to the jurisdiction of the 
Confederate States, fearing the result of a trial by the British 
authorities. He further requests that measures may be taken to 
have certain officers of the ' Sumter,' including Lieutenant Chap- 
man, brought as witnesses on his behalf at his trial. 

" I can form no opinion of what it may be proper for me to 
do in the premises, until I get the report of Lieutenant Chap- 
man, Should there be reasonable foundation for the alleged 
belief of Hester that Andrews designed the surrender of the ship 
to the enemy, I shall consider it my duty to do whatever may be 
found best to give him the full benefit of the proofs he may adduce. 
On the question of jurisdiction, it would certainly be right that 
he should be tried under the authority of our Government, but 
even should the jurisdiction be yielded by the British Gkivern- 
ment (which in our unrecognized condition is by no means cer- 
tain), I should be at a great loss to know how to bring the 
prisoner to trial, and what to do with him in the meantime. This, 
however, can be only or best determined after getting Lieutenant 
Chapman's report. 

" I have further to state in the dilemma arising out of this 
unfortunate affair, and with the entire concurrence and advice 
of Captains Bullock and Sinclair, of the Navy, as well as Lieu- 
tenant Chapman, I have determined to have the ' Sumter ' sold, 
and have taken measures to have the sale made by Captain Bul- 
lock, the senior officer in the service here. Her armament, and 
such stores of clothing, etc., as can be used in fitting out other 
ships, will be reserved. 

' I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 19. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, November 4th, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: 

"Sir: In my No. 16, of the i8th of September last, I 
advised you of my opinion that money might be commanded 
here by the Confederate Government, and in large amounts, upon 
obligations for the delivery of cotton. I revert to that subject 
now and more at length. 



34^ 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" In order to obtain as full and satisfactory information 
as could be had prospectively on this subject, I sought an inter- 
view with Mr. W. S. Lindsay, who is the founder and principal in 
the house of W. S. Lindsay and Company, of London. I do not 
know whether you are acquainted with the reputation of the 
house, but he is known as the largest ship-owner in England — 
of the most extended commercial connection, and is trusted and 
consulted in commercial matters, as well by his own Government, 
as by the Emperor of the French — an original and steady friend 
of the Southern States, and who has been for many years a mem- 
ber of Parliament. Through his house, as stated in my No. i6, 
bonds for the delivery of cotton were negotiated to the amount 
of sixty thousand pounds sterling, for the use of the Navy 
Department. 

" Mr. Lindsay brought to me afterwards a Mr. Thomas Hug- 
gins, a stockholder of this city, as one of the best acquainted 
with moneyed affairs here, and I enclose you herewith a memo- 
randum furnished by him, embodying his views on the subject, 
together with a letter from Mr. Lindsay, referring to it as 
Paper A. You will see that Mr. Huggins contemplates an Act 
of Congress authorizing this mode of finance to be recited in the 
bond. This, I have no doubt, would make them more accep- 
table in the market. The main thing, however, is the principle 
of raising money in this mode, and the price at which the Gov- 
ernment can properly enter into it as the seller of cotton for 
future delivery. In view of what we learn is the present price 
of cotton (fourpence sterling per pound — equal to eight cents 
in coin of our money), it is certainly low; but Mr. Huggins, I 
think wisely suggests that the price, in after issues would be 
adjusted, having in view the elements of market-value and ex- 
change, by the appreciation in value of the bonds after they came 
into market. Thus, that the first issue of bonds should be for a 
comparatively small amount : say, one hundred thousand pounds 
sterling, or, if desired, double the sum. He does not doubt that 
this amount could be readily placed (as they call it) at fourpence 
per pound. They would go into the hands of large holders, who 
would expect to part with the whole or a portion of them at a 
profit. He thinks this form of investment would present an in- 
viting speculation ; and that the bonds so issued would rapidly 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



347 



appreciate, and, thus, the Government would have the advantage 
of whatever premium they might attain in its subsequent issues. 
He does not think that increasing the price of the cotton in such 
subsequent issues, would be likely to produce as large avails 
as by retaining the original price and looking to the appreciation 
of the bonds. This, however, could be best adjusted on ex- 
perience. The state of exchange and fluctuating price of cotton 
so materially afifect a scheme of this kind (elements better known 
to you than to me), that I am at a loss to express an opinion as 
to the advantage of such loan, but it is very certain, that in the 
form proposed, money can be had at once. Indeed Mr. Lindsay 
told me I might say to the Government that, apart from the 
other probable demand, he would undertake to furnish, through 
himself and connections, from a quarter to a half million of 
pounds sterHng. 

" I send with this, the form of the bond issued by Captain 
Sinclair and endorsed by me, which will give the outline of the 
proposed transaction. 

" I send also, with this dispatch, Mr. Slidell's No. i8, which 
he forwarded to me for transmission, accompanied by a proposal 
from the banking house of M. M. Emile Erlanger & Company, 
of Paris, for the loan to the Government of five millions of 
pounds sterling ; accompanied by sundry printed papers from that 
house, together with a letter from them to Mr. Slidell, referring 
to the subject. 

" I have no information about this house except such as is 
furnished by Mr. Slidell, and which, I, in no manner, doubt. 

" The proposals, as you will see, impart an agreement to 
which I am made party for submitting them to the Government, 
vouching for the character of the house (in Article 20), and 
advising that a person be appointed in Europe ' to sign a defini- 
tive contract,' etc. Lest my act should be misinterpreted at 
home, I did not feel disposed to sign the paper. Mr. Slidell 
having access to information in Paris which I had not, might well 
agree to submit the plan for consideration, when I, in the absence 
of such information, perhaps, ought not. Do not understand, 
therefore, that the absence of my name from the paper imports 
anything more than the want of proper information. I thought 
it possible, too. in presenting projects from both London and 



M- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Paris on this subject, my formal signature of the Paris pro- 
posals might seem (unexplained), to give them countenance over 
those from here. It certainly seems to me that the London plan 
ofifers the best scheme of finance; and it can be adopted pro- 
gressively or discontinued, if found inadvisable. What incidental 
political advantages might attend the Paris plan, Mr. Slidell is 
far more competent to determine than I can be. I can only add, 
should the Government be disposed to commit anything to me on 
this subject,'! shall execute its orders under the guidance of the 
best counsels I can obtain here. Mr. Lindsay's letter, enclosed, 
refers also, and at some length, to a plan of direct intercourse by 
steam between Europe and the Confederate States, at the ports 
of Norfolk and New Orleans, by the French ' Compagnie 
Generale Trans-Atlantique,' of which he sends, with his letter, 
their organization as printed. These proposals, I need not say, 
are worthy of the mature consideration of the Government. The 
capital is large, in able hands,, and under the most responsible 
directory ; and, as will be seen, has the potent aid and patronage 
of the French Emperor. 

" The plan of the company was to run a line between France 
and the United States. Mr. Lindsay, I know, is intimate in the 
commercial counsels of the French Emperor, who rehes much 
on his judgment and experience : anfl I know that the latter sends 
for him occasionally to consult with him on matters pertaining 
to French commerce. He has had, moreover, a large agency in 
establishing and regulating the commercial relations and inter- 
course between the two Governments. You will remark by the 
extract from his letter to the manager of the French company, 
that he points very strongly to the reason? why the proposed 
intercourse with America should be changed from North to 
South : and he says in his letter to me (enclosed herewith), that 
on these conditions he will become a member of the directory; 
and, at the close of the war, will go in person to the South, and if 
acceptable to our Government, will there arrange the terms, etc. 
He thinks, as doubtless you will, that it is of the greatest moment 
everything should be in readiness to open this communication 
immediately, upon the close of the war, or the opening of our 
ports ; and I know enough of him and of his influence, both here 
and on the Continent, to be assured that the matter could not be 
in more friendly or judicious hands. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



349 



" The business affairs of the house of Messrs. Lindsay & 
Company, are now chiefly managed by other members of the 
firm. Mr. L. himself devotes a great deal of time to matters of 
more general and public interest connected with commerce, and 
which he is well able to do, being of large and independent 
fortune. 

" I have had several plans laid before me by merchants and 
others here, all eager to grasp the first fruits of direct trade with 
the South; but they come altogether from private individuals, 
who will have to look up the capital to begin with, and must rely 
mainly for success on aid expected from the Confederate States' 
Government, over all which the French Company certainly has 
overshadowing advantages. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 

[Unofficial.] 

" 24 Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square, 

"London, November 8th, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State: 

" Sir : My dispatches by Lieutenant Wilkinson went off 
yesterday. I write this unofficial note to overtake him and reach 
you with them. 

" Since they were written, what was rumour then has at- 
tained a form of authenticity which leads me at once to send it 
to you. 

" There is no doubt that the Emperor of France has proposed 
to England and Russia that the three powers should unite in 
proposing to the belligerents of America an armistice for six 
months, with the blockade removed as part of the armistice, and 
it is confidently asserted that Russia has assented to it. 

" I have not been able to gather opinion from public men, 
of what England may do, but it is hardly probable that she will 
refuse her concurrence. 

" You may receive as a fact that the Emperor of France has 
made the proposal. I can not speak with like certainty of the 
assent of Russia, but believe it to be true. 

" You may learn all this probably through the Northern 



350^ 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



papers before this reaches you, but it may come as rumour only ; 
I therefore hasten to send it to you as above. 
" I have the honour to be very respectfully, 
" Your obedient servant, 

"J.M.MASON." 

Dispatch No. 12. 

"y. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J . M. Mason, Commissioner 
Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Department of State, 
" Richmond, January 15th, 1863. 

"Sir: A copy of your No. 18 has been furnished to the 
Navy Department, which has issued the proper instructions, as 
I am informed, in relation to the Sumter's affairs. I believe Mr. 
Mallory is entirely satisfied that your course in ordering the 
sale of the vessel ; it was the best that could be adopted under the 
circumstances. The conflicting- statements of Hester and the 
crew render it extremely embarrassing to suggest any course of 
action in relation to the unfortunate occurrence on board of 
that vessel; besides which, it is scarcely probable that any in- 
structions from this side could reach you in time to determine 
your action. Under all the circumstances, therefore, it is thought 
best that you should exercise your own discretion as to the 
proper course to be pursued, after satisfying yourself of the true 
state of facts. 

" If Hester's statement be false, it is certainly a very bold 
•device on his part to escape the consequences of his crime, and 
I confess that it seems to me more probable that his statements 
are true than that they were invented as an excuse for his act. 

" A copy of your No. 19 has been furnished to Mr. Mem- 
menger, and we have had several conferences on the subject. The 
plan recommended by Mr. Lindsay had been substantially 
adopted prior to the receipt of your dispatch, and cotton bonds 
to a considerable amount had been forwarded to Europe, in order 
that they might be disposed of by Mr. Spence, with the aid and 
advice of Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Company, after being 
verified and signed by you. This agency was confided to Mr. 
Spence in deference to your advice, and you will perceive, there- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



35^ 



fore, that it is out of the po\yer of the Secretary of the Treasury 
to avail himself of the tender of services of Messrs. Lindsay, which 
would have been quite acceptable. The bonds sent to Mr. Spence 
are for cotton at fivepence, and at that rate they seem to us ex- 
cessively low and are sent in the hope that they will command a 
handsome premium. It occurs to us that the basis on which the 
value of cotton is placed by Messrs. Lindsay and Mr. Huggins is 
by no means a reasonable one. The average value of cotton dur- 
ing the five years that preceded this war, when abundant supplies 
were supposed to be always accessible, and when enormous ac- 
cumulations of stock of both the raw material and the manufac- 
tured articles existed in the principal marts of the world, is surely 
no basis for estimating the future value of cotton, when the 
crops of the three years of the war will not much exceed a single 
year's supply, when accumulated stocks have been exhausted, 
and particularly in view of the fact that for the first few years of 
peace the supplies from this country will still continue to be 
limited by reason of the exhaustion produced by the war, and the 
diversion of slave labor to many other pursuits. It is my deliber- 
ate opinion that cotton of the quality of middling Orleans can 
not be sold below eightpence for a series of years. 

" In relation to a loan of which those gentlemen made men- 
tion, there is no desire nor intention on our part to effect a loan 
in Europe. When peace shall return and our position is firmly 
secured, if we can obtain a large loan at low rates so as to con- 
vert our debt to advantage, no doubt we shall be ready to do so ; 
but during the war we want only such moderate sums as are 
required abroad for the purchase of warlike supplies and for 
vessels, and even that is not required because of our want of 
funds, but because of the difificulty of remittance. I state these 
facts, because we already perceive both in England and France 
indications that an impression is entertained of our desire to raise 
money by loan, while such is not the policy of the Government. 

" The agents of Messrs. Erlanger and Company arrived a few 
days before your dispatches, and were quite surprised to find 
their proposals were considered inadmissible. They very soon 
discovered how infinitely stronger we were, and how much 
more abundant our resources than they had imagined. We 
finally agreed with them to take fifteen millions instead of twenty- 



352 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



five which they offered. Instead of seventy per cent, for our 
bonds bearing interest at eight per cent, they have agreed to 
give seventy-seven per cent, for our bonds bearing interest at 
seven per cent., and if payment is made in cotton we are to be 
allowed sixpence a pound for it. These terms, although vastly 
better than the outline of contract made in Paris, were considered 
by us so onerous, that we were unwilling to take the whole 
amount offered, and would have declined it altogether, but for 
the political considerations indicated by Mr. Slidell, in whose 
judgment in such matters we are disposed to place very great 
confidence. 

" The subject of steam connection between Europe and the 
Confederacy is one which we look to with deep interest, and the 
President has read with great satisfaction the communication ad- 
dressed by Mr. Lindsay. He desires me to express his acknowl- 
edgments for the offer of Mr. Lindsay to interest himself in the 
establishment of a connection between us and France by means 
of the French Company, and to assure Mr. Lindsay, through 
you, of the great pleasure with which he would receive that 
gentleman's proposed visit to our country, and the confidence 
he entertains that Mr. Lindsay's enlarged experience would be 
of great value to us in the commercial and foreign postal arrange- 
ments which will become necessary on the establishment of peace. 
If Mr. Lindsay should carry into effect his purpose of visiting 
Richmond, he will be received not only with the cordial welcome 
due to his position and character, but with evidence that we have 
not been insensible to the generous sympathies in our behalf 
which he has so constantly and efficiently exhibited from the 
very beginning of our contest. 

" You are however, aware, that under our Constitution it 
is not within the power of the Confederate Government to grant 
postal subsidies, as the provision is express ' that the expenses 
of the Post-Office Department after the first day of March, 1863, 
shall be paid out of its own revenues.' The whole extent of the 
aid that we could give to a line of steamers therefore, would be 
the gross proceeds of the inland and sea postages on the mails 
carried by it ; but this would be no inconsiderable sum as soon as 
commerce resumes its regular peaceful channels. If necessary, 
statistics could be prepared on this point, exhibiting the probable 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



353 



revenue to be derived from that source. But although the Con- 
federate Government is thus without power under the Constitu- 
tion to grant postal subsidies, the several States have such power, 
and it is deemed highly probable that the State of Virginia, in 
view of the great advantages she would derive from the establish- 
ment of a line of steamers terminating at Norfolk, would make a 
reasonable grant for such a purpose. This you will understand, 
however, to be a mere expression of personal opinion, and you 
are the best judge of its value. 

" We have not a word from Mr. Slidell or yourself since the 
publication of the correspondence between the Cabinets of Great 
Britain, France, and Russia early in November last. My dis- 
patch No. II, sent in duplicate, and which I hope has reached 
you, contained a full exposition of the view of the Government 
in relation to the probable effects of peace on our commerce, and 
the President's message sent herewith, contains so full a review 
of our internal condition as to relieve me from the necessity of 
further detail. 

" I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN." 

Dispatch No. 20. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

"London, November 7th, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : From here I have nothing new to report. A meet- 
ing of the Cabinet which had been called for the 23d of October, 
which it was generally believed had been convoked to deliberate 
on American affairs, was not held ; Earl Russell notifying the 
Ministers by telegraph on the day previous that it was unneces- 
sary for them to attend; nor have I heard of any called since. 
Indeed the purpose of those who rule in the Cabinet seems 
obdurate not to recognize now, nor to give intimation when, or 
under what circumstances recognition may be expected; still 
everything that occurs at the North, or in the operations of the 
armies works favorably for us in the public judgment. Even the 
Emancipation Proclamation, which it is believed was issued 
under the promptings of their Minister Adams, as the means of 



354 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



warding off recognition, had little other effect than to disappoint 
the Anti-slavery party here, and met with general contempt and 
derision. It was seen through at once, and contemned ac- 
cordingly. 

" The cotton famine, however, which has been pressing hard 
upon the manufacturing districts, is looming up in fearful pro- 
portions. It is stated that there are, now, some hundred thou- 
sand of the population entirely dependent on charity for subsist- 
ence ; and this large number is increasing at from ten to twenty 
thousand a week : added to which, pestilence in the form of low 
or typhoid fever, has already commenced its ravages. 

" The public mind is very much disturbed at the fearful pros- 
pect for the winter ; and I am not without hope that it will pro- 
duce its effects on the counsels of the Government. I am grati- 
fied to be able to say that the abilty of our generals, and the 
prowess of our arms is everywhere acknowledged in Europe, and 
there is equally acknowledged the striking difference between the 
inflated and mendacious reports on the Northern side contrasted 
with the calm and dignified revelations of truth that slowly reach 
here from the South. 

" I see and hear nothing from the British Government either 
officially or unofficially. Mr. Slidell has an advantage over me 
in this, as he sees the Ministers frequently, as well as the Em- 
peror. I have sometimes thought it might be due to the dignity 
of the Government, under such circumstances, that I should 
terminate the mission here ; but I do not feel at liberty to advise 
it, because, although unaccredited, I find my presence in London, 
as the representative of the Government, is really important in 
matters frequently arising, where we should not be without some 
responsible head. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 21. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, December loth, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Referring to my No. 8, 1 have to add that since its date 
I received a full report from Lieutenant Chapman, which leaves 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



355 



little doubt that the allegation of Hester that Midshipman 
Andrews designed to surrender the Sumter to the enemy was 
altogether a fabrication ; and that the true cause of the murder 
was that Hester had just been detected by Andrews in pilfering 
the public property in the ship. 

" On the question of demanding the prisoner for trial by the 
Confederate authorities, I have stated the difficulties that were 
presented in my No. i8. Subsequently I presented the question 
fully for the advice of Mr. Slidell, and was happy to find that 
he agreed with me as to the expediency, or rather necessity of 
leaving the matter in the hands of the British authorities. 

" I have thought it due, however, as Hester was a petty 
officer in the navy, and had no means of providing for his defence, 
that he should not be left without some such provision for the 
expenses of counsel and witnesses ; and have directed Lieutenant 
Chapman accordingly. 

" In my No. i8 I stated also that I had determined to have 
the ' Sumter ' sold, and the reasons for it. The whole subject of 
the sale was submitted to Captain Bullock, C. S. A., as the senior 
naval officer, and I learn by telegraph this morning from Gibral- 
tar that the ship had been sold to a British house, the price not 
stated. The proceeds of the sale will be turned over to Captain 
Bullock, in charge of the naval funds here. 

" Will you be good enough to communicate this dispatch to 
the Secretary of the Navy ? 

" I have the honor to be^ etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 22. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, December loth, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Referring to my dispatch No. 19, of which you have 
a duplicate herewith, I have only to say, that since its date, I 
have taken no further steps in regard to the plan proposed of 
raising money by means of obligations for the delivery of cotton. 
Since then, however, Commander Maury, of the navy, has arrived 
here, with authority from the Secretary of the Navy to obtain 



356 



LIFE OF JAMES 'MURRAY MASON. 



money for the naval purposes committed to his charge, by means 
of such cotton obHgations, should he find it necessary and prac- 
ticable. He brought a like authority to other naval ofBcers here 
who had actual contracts in course of execution for building 
ships. I have also had an interview with Mr. Spence, of Liver- 
pool, to whom the Secretary of the Treasury had confided an 
agency for the sale, or other disposition of the bonds of the 
Confederate States, as auxiliary to the purpose of the Navy 
Department. These gentlemen have all freely consulted with 
me as to the most desirable course to be pursued. They saw, at 
once, the diflficulties and embarrassments that might arise from 
any separate action on their parts in the markets. The matter in 
relation to the sale or disposition of the bonds, was given to Mr. 
Spence, who was to act in consultation with the house of Fraser, 
Trenholm & Company, of Liverpool, and the subject of the cot- 
ton obligations was by the naval officers, wisely, I think, turned 
over to the agency of that house. From all the information 
derived, their impression seemed to be that money could be more 
advantageously obtained, by means of the latter than by the use 
of the Confederate bonds. 

" Nothing pertaining to this matter of obtaining money has, 
as you are aware, been committed to me ; nor have I acted further 
in it than freely to consult with those gentlemen to whom it has 
been committed. In the course of these deliberations and discus- 
sions, however, it has become very manifest, that the credit of the 
Government would be better sustained, and its operations much 
facilitated, by prescribing a definite mode in the management of 
all money operations here ; that is to say, that separate and 
single agencies should be established, for providing funds in 
Europe, whether by the sale of Government bonds, or by the 
use of cotton obligations on the part of the Government ; and 
that all money to be disbursed here should be by drafts on such 
agencies, nor do I know of better hands to whom it should be 
confided than where it now rests — say to Mr. Spence as agent for 
the bonds, in consultation with the house named in Liverpool ; 
and to that house in regard to the cotton bonds ; and perhaps, 
for additional security it should be required that what they might 
do in England, should have the approval of the representative of 
the Government here. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



357 



" I venture to submit these suggestions to the better judg- 
ment of yourself and the Secretary of the Treasury. 
" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 23. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, December nth, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : At this season of the year, as you are aware, the 
public functionaries are generally in the country; and we hear 
but little from political circles. I think, however, events are 
maturing which must lead to some change in the attitude of 
England. The cotton famine still continues to extend itself with 
apparently gigantic strides, and the English people are exerting 
themselves, through all ranks, to come to its relief by private 
contributions. It is not believed, however, that actual starvation 
can be kept oflf by such means, and the Government must come 
in aid. 

" Parliament is to meet early in February, and if the question 
comes before it of supplying means from the Treasury, a potent 
argument will be drawn thence in support of the relief that could 
be extended by the termination, in some way, of the American 
war. 

" Through the Northern papers you will have seen the suc- 
cessful cruise of the Alabama, so far, against the enemy's com- 
merce. It is alleged, that in some instances, British property has 
been destroyed on board the prizes ; and within a few days past, 
I have received a letter from a commercial house here, inclosing 
one from Mr. Richard C. Gurney, who states himself to be a 
British subject, resident in New York, making a reclamation on 
the Confederate Government for eighty-five barrels of flour 
alleged to have been destroyed by Captain Semmes of the Ala- 
bama, on board the Federal ship ' Brilliant.' I advised the house 
here that the claim should be made through the Foreign Office ; 
but if they desired it, I would transmit the papers directly to my 
Government, when communication between the two countries 
should have opened. 

" On this subject of the Alabama, there appeared a late 



358 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



letter from Earl Russell, which, in its expressions, went further 
towards recognition than anything that has yet fallen from him. 
" It appears that certain merchants of Liverpool had made 
complaint to him that their American ships had been destroyed 
by the ' Alabama,' and they asked for redress. In his reply, 
recapitulating this request, he spoke of it as property alleged to 
have been destroyed by the ' Confederate war-steamer Alabama,' 
and told them, that as in Hke cases, where neutral property was 
destroyed by a belligerent at sea, their redress could only be 
through the Prize Courts of that belligerent. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

" /. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner 
Cmtfedcrate States to England. 

" Department of State, 

" Richmond, February 7th, 1863. 

" Sir : It was very unfortunate that your situation was such 
as to render it impossible for you to take charge of the accused 
Hester, or to send him to this country for trial, as his ofifence, 
committed on board one of our national vessels was as much 
within our exclusive jurisdiction as if committed on the soil of 
the Confederacy. But as you would, in the event of his delivery 
to you on demand, have been utterly without any means of bring- 
ing him away or sending him under proper guard to this country, 
you seem to have had no choice in the matter. It is to be feared 
that this case, however, may be hereafter cited as a precedent 
against us when our circumstances shall be changed, and it is 
regarded as unfortunate that our silent acquiescence, enforced 
as it has been by our peculiar condition, leaves us open to mis- 
construction. 

" Your views expressed in No. 22 are in entire accordance 
with those of Mr. Memmenger and myself, and means have 
already been taken to concentrate in one house or agent all the 
financial operations of the Government abroad, and to revoke 
authority given by heads of departments to separate or special 
agents. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



359 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Dispatch from Richmond Speaks of Future Commerce with Confederate 
States — Of Correspondence Between France, England, and Russia Re- 
garding an Armistice— Private Letter — Favorable Effect in England of 
Southern Victories — Politics in the North — Parties in Parliament— Private 
Letter — Conversation with Lord Donoughmore — Department Refutes 
Northern Reports Regarding Re-opening the Slave Trade — Cotton Cer- 
tificates from the Treasury the True Mode of Raising Money— List of 
U. S. Vessels Destroyed by Confederates — Blockade Raised at Charleston, 
Galveston, and Sabine Pass — England Determined to Run No Risk of 
Trouble with United States. 

" J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State Confederate States, to J. M. 

Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain: 
" Department of State, 

"Richmond, December ii, 1862. 
(Received in London February 25.) 

" Sir : The recently published correspondence between the 
Cabinets of France, Great Britain, and Russia indicates that the 
period is fast approaching when the dictates of reason, justice, 
and humanity will be respected, and our undoubted right to 
recognition as an independent nation be acknowledged. This 
recognition must, in the nature of things be followed by a speedy 
peace. 

" The consideration of the effects which will be produced by 
this event on the commercial relations of the Confederacy evokes 
deep solicitude, and it becomes my duty to communicate to you 
the instructions of your Government on this important subject. 

" It is necessary to keep in view the very exceptional condi- 
tion in which the present war has placed the Confederate States, 
in order to form a just estimate of the probable results of the 
renewal of peaceful relations between the belligerents. 

" The almost total cessation of external commerce for the 
last two years has produced the complete exhaustion of the 
supply of all articles of foreign growth and manufacture, and it 
is but a moderate computation to estimate the imports into the 
Confederacy at three hundred millions of dollars for the first six 
months which will ensue after the treaty of peace. The articles 
which will meet with most ready sale (and in enormous quanti- 



36o 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



ties), as soon as our country is open to commerce are textile 
fabrics, whether of wool, cotton or flax ; iron and steel and articles 
manufactured from them in all their varieties ; leather and manu- 
factures of leather, such as shoes, boots, saddlery, harness, etc., 
clothing of all kinds ; glass, crockery ; the products of the vine, 
whether wines, brandies, or liqueurs ; silk and all fabrics of silk ; 
hats, caps, etc. ; the large class of commodities known as ' articles 
de Paris ' ; the ' comestibles ' of France, including not only pre- 
served meats, game and fish, but fruits, vegetables, confec- 
tionery and sweetmeats ; salt, drugs, chemicals, stationery, manu- 
factures of brass, lead, pewter, tin ; together with an innumerable 
variety of other articles of less importance. 

" In exchange for these importations we have to oflfer the 
cotton, tobacco, and naval stores accumulated in the Confed- 
eracy. They are of much larger value even at half their present 
prices than the amount of importations estimated as above for the 
first six months; indeed I feel confident that at one-third the 
present European prices for our staples we have exchangeable 
value for the whole $300,000,000 in these three enumerated 
articles, independently of rice, ship-timber, and other productions 
of the field and forest. 

" It must, however, be admitted as not improbable that a 
considerable quantity of these accumulated products may be 
destroyed by us in order to avoid their seizure by the enemy in 
such portions of the country as may become readily accessible 
to their gunboats during the approaching season of high water. 
This necessity is imposed on us, as you are aware, by the 
fact that the troops of the United States pay no respect to private 
property, even of non-combatants or neutrals, but appropriate 
to themselves every article of movable property that they can 
reach in any part of our country. 

" Notwithstanding the exasperation of feeling now prevail- 
ing in the Confederacy against the United States, no statesman 
can fail to perceive that in the restoration of peace the commer- 
cial intercourse between the present belligerents must necessarily 
be placed on such a basis as to accord to each other the same 
terms and conditions as are accorded to friendly nations in gen- 
eral. It is scarcely to be supposed that a treaty of peace could 
be concluded that should leave it optional to either party to 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



361 



wage a war of hostile tariffs or special restrictions against the 
other ; nor would such a state of things be desirable, if possible, 
for it would be manifestly incompatible with the maintenance of 
permanent peaceful relations. It must be conceded, therefore, 
that the final cessation of hostilities will open to the United States 
access to the markets of the Confederacy as free as that which 
may be conceded to European nations in general. 

" In view of this condition of affairs, it is not difificult to 
predict the probable results on the commerce of the Confederacy, 
which will be immediately developed unless prevented by some 
counteracting influence. 

" I. The first consequence to be anticipated is that our 
land will be pervaded by the agents of the Northern mer- 
chants who will monopolize those products of the South from 
which Europe has been so long debarred, and which are so need- 
ful to its prosperity. The cotton, tobacco, and naval stores of 
the South will become at once the prize of Northern cupidity, 
and will only reach Europe after having paid heavy profits to 
these forestallers. Nor will the amount of the profits exacted be 
the only loss entailed on Europe. The purchase of the raw 
material at lower cost would give to the manufacturers of New 
England an advantage over their European rivals much more 
important than the mere original excess of outlay to which the 
latter would be subjected. 

" II. Such are the necessities of our people and so eager will 
be their desire to avail themselves of the first opportunity for pro- 
curing commodities which they have cheerfully foregone as long 
as privation was the price of liberty, that it will be nearly impos- 
sible to prevent the enormous demands for necessary supplies 
from being satisfied almost exclusively from the North, which 
will avail itself of its close proximity to preoccupy so inviting a 
field of richly remunerative commerce. 

" III. The current trade will thus, at the very outset of 
our career, continue to fiow in its ancient channels, which will 
even be deepened, and our commerce with Europe, instead of 
becoming direct, to mutual advantage, as for years we have 
desired, will remain tributary to an intermediary. The difficulty 
of diverting trade from an established channel has become pro- 
verbial, and in our case the difficwlty would be enhanced by the 



362 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



causes just indicated. These contingencies can not be contem- 
plated without deep concern. During the whole period of the 
existence of the Southern States their pursuits have been almost 
exclusively agricultural ; they possess scarcely the semblance of 
a merchant marine, nor can they hope to acquire one sufficient 
for the exchange of their products until after the lapse of a num- 
ber of years ; and a still longer period must intervene before 
they can expect to provide, by their own manufacture, a supply 
of many articles of necessary consumption. 

"In addition to the difficulties inherent under any circum- 
stances in the task of creating the navigation and manufactures 
required for a population of over ten millions of people, there 
exists in the South obstacles resulting from the education, habits, 
tastes and interests of its citizens. For generations, they have 
been educated to prefer agricultural to other pursuits, and this 
preference owes its origin to the fertility of their soil and the 
genial influences of their climate, which render those pursuits 
not only more attractive to their tastes but more lucrative than 
those of the manufacturer or the seaman. It is certain, there- 
fore, that for many years the carrying trade of the Confederacy, 
both foreign and coastwise, will be conducted and its supplies 
of manufactured articles will be furnished by foreign countries 
in exchange for the products of its soil. 

" It is the most earnest desire of this Government and peo- 
ple that a commerce so large and profitable as that which they 
tender to mankind shall not be monopolized by the United 
States, and that a direct trade with Europe shall furnish to us 
all articles, the growth or manufacture, of that continent. They 
are well aware that from proximity the Northern States possess 
a natural advantage over any European rival for much of our 
trade, but the value of their political independence would, in 
their estimation, be greatly impaired if the result of the war should 
leave them in commercial dependence by giving to those States 
the additional enormous advantage arising out of the present 
exceptional condition of the South. Unless some preventive 
measures be adopted the exchange of the South for staples 
accumulated during the two years of the war will be practically 
effected during the first two months of peace, and will inure to 
the almost exclusive benefit of that power whose wicked aggres- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



363 



sions have already entailed so much misery and distress not only 
on ourselves but on the rest of the civilized world. 

" It is scarcely possible to refrain from the reflection that 
consequences so hostile to the interests of Europe as well as 
our own, have been produced by a policy on the part of certain 
European powers in disregard of the plainest dictates of inter- 
national law, as well as of implied promise to ourselves. If 
Europe had asserted its unquestioned right to resist a predatory 
cruise carried on against its commerce on three thousand miles 
of our coast by the ships of the United States, under pretext of 
a blockade of our ports, we should not now be engaged in an 
efifort to avert the disastrous effects to European interests which 
must be anticipated from the causes above pointed out. Our 
markets would not now be denuded of all supplies of European 
commodities, and on the restoration of peace the North would 
possess, in the competition for our commerce, none of the abnor- 
mal advantages which we now seek to neutralize. It is far from 
our purpose, in the expression of this view, to indulge in vain 
recrimination, but the suggestion is made in the hope that neutral 
nations will be induced, not only by a regard to their own inter- 
ests, but by the higher obligations of justice and duty to co- 
operate in the endeavor to obviate any further ill effects of a 
policy which experience now justifies us in pronouncing to have 
been at least unwise. 

" What are the practical measures which can be devised for 
this purpose? What can be done to prevent consequences which 
we frankly own would be considered by us as a national calamity, 
as well as a source of deep mortification? The difficulties are 
great, but not perhaps insurmountable, especially if you can suc- 
ceed in exciting the solicitude of the Court to which you are 
accredited and awakening it to the magnitude of the interests 
of neutral nations involved in the subject. It is one which our 
position has forced upon our attention, and which it is not un- 
natural to suppose has been considered by us with more care 
than by those less intimately conversant with the state of affairs 
on this side of the Atlantic. 

" Without restricting you as to the adoption of any other 
measures than may be proposed, or may occur to your mind, 



3^4 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



you are instructed to urge the different points which I now pro- 
ceed to suggest. 

" I. In order to prevent the monopoly by the Northern 
States of the accumulated staples now held by our people, no 
measure seems less objectionable nor more appropriate than to 
encourage the merchants of neutral nations to purchase in ad- 
vance these products and to leave them here in depot till the 
ports are opened. 

" This course would already have been adopted to a very 
considerable extent (as I am aware from numerous applications 
made to this Department) if the staples thus purchased could be 
guaranteed against destruction by the respective belligerents. 
The remedy for this seems to be very simple and entirely within 
the reach of neutral powers, but they have hitherto, for reasons 
doubtless satisfactory to themselves, but which we are unable to 
conjecture, declined to adopt it. 

" The case stands thus : In the language of Mr. Phillimore, 
' There is no more unquestionable proposition of international 
law than the proposition that neutral States are entitled to carry 
on, upon their own account, a trade with a belligerent.' 

" The United States do not, however, concern themselves 
with unquestionable propositions of international law, nor have 
they ever affected, during the present war, to refrain from any 
exercise of power against neutrals which seemed to offer the 
slightest momentary advantage. General Butler still continues 
to imprison and rob indiscriminately foreign merchants and 
native citizens of New Orleans ; and in no place where the forces 
of the United States penetrate is there a moment's hesitation in 
appropriating any neutral property to their use. This universal 
robbery by the enemy of all private property, forced upon this 
Government the necessity of destroying everything movable as 
fast as it became exposed to imminent danger of pillage. In this 
state of the case, the Department was addressed by the agents of 
foreign merchants desirous of purchasing our staples and storing 
them until peace should be restored, with the request that 
special instructions should be given to exempt from such destruc- 
tion the property thus purchased. This Government could have 
no possible motive for destroying neutral property, but every 
dictate of policy counselled that, on the contrary, we should 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j6^ 



protect it. We could not consent, however, that neutral prop- 
erty should be seized by the enemy and converted to his use, 
for we would thus have been supplying him with the means of 
continuing hostilities against ourselves. The eflfect of such 
action on our part may be readily illustrated : Cotton is worth 
at least two hundred dollars per bale in specie in the United 
States, and not more than one-fifth of that sum in the Confed- 
eracy. Thus, on the supposition that only 100,000 bales of cot- 
ton belonging to neutrals should be seized and appropriated by 
the United States, they would be provided with twenty millions 
of dollars in specie, and if called on to refund in damages by 
neutral powers would seek to escape responsibility, and perhaps 
succeed in doing so, by reimbursing to the neutral owners, after 
some years of diplomatic correspondence, the fifth of that sum 
as being the value of the cotton at the time and place of its seizure. 
The simplest instincts of self-defence required us to defeat such 
machinations, and this Department made answer, therefore, to 
the applications of neutral merchants that this Government would 
protect their property against destruction, upon receiving any 
satisfactory assurance from their own Governments that the 
property would be effectually protected against seizure and ap- 
propriation by the enemy if it fell into their hands. This answer 
seems to have been submitted to the Government of Her Britannic 
Majesty by different British Consuls and to have elicited a reply 
to which extensive publicity was given. This reply, dated the 
loth August, 1 862, and signed by Her Britannic Majesty's Charge 
d'Affaires at Washington, is confined to an acknowledgment of 
the right of this Government to act in the manner already men- 
tioned, but omits giving to British subjects any assurance of 
protection against spoliation by the United States. No action on 
the subject has been taken by any other neutral power, if we are 
fully informed, and the whole matter seems res Integra so far as 
the present inquiry is concerned, for it is impossible to inter- 
pret the mere silence of the British Cabinet on this point as an 
abandonment of the right of protecting British subjects against 
unlawful spoHation. 

" n. In order to prevent the United States from pre- 
occupying, for their exclusive benefit, the market for foreign 



366 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



merchandise which the South will present as soon as peace is 
declared, several suggestions occur. 

" It would, in the first place, seem not to be impracticable 
for the several European Governments, pending the negotiations 
which must necessarily precede the final settlement of the terms 
of a treaty, to devise some means of communicating in advance 
to their merchants, the assured conviction of an early renewal of 
commerce with the Confederacy, and to encourage the forma- 
tion in their West Indian colonies of large depots of the supplies 
known to be needed here, ready for immediate introduction into 
the Confederacy. Such measures, accompanied by the necessary 
arrangements for the speediest transmission to these depots of 
the news of the opening of commerce, would aid, to some extent, 
in the accomplishment of the objects desired. A large number 
of 'the merchant ships required for the transportation of these 
supplies would also meet with a ready sale in the ports of the 
Confederacy, especially if screw steamers suitable for direct trade 
with Europe or for Government transport ships. And the effi- 
ciency of this measure would be greatly increased if accompanied 
by the prompt operation of one or more lines of steamers between 
Europe and Southern ports. But the only effective remedy for 
preventing Northern monopoly, and for neutralizing the unjust 
advantages which the United States, at the expense of Europe, 
would seek to secure from their violent infractions of inter- 
national law, would be to place the Confederacy in the same 
condition relative to foreign supplies as was occupied by it prior 
to the declaration of the blockade of the entire coast — a declara- 
tion which for the first time in history has been respected as 
legal by neutral powers. To this end no measure seems better 
adapted than that proposed by His Imperial Majesty of France 
to the Cabinets of Great Britain and Russia, in the correspond- 
ence already adverted to. ' An armistice for six months, during 
which every act of war, direct or indirect, should provisionally 
cease, on sea as well as on land,' would give to European powers 
that opportunity which justice demands for placing within the 
Confederacy the supplies and making the purchases that would 
long since have been effected, but for the unjust interference of 
the United States with neutral rights, and thus enforce agamst 
that aggressive power the rule of universal equity that none shall 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



367 



be allowed to profit by their own misdeeds. Neutral nations 
would thus be reinstated in the possession of their ' unquestion- 
able right to trade for their own account with a belligerent,' and 
upon the final cessation of hostilities would enter into the compe- 
tition for our trade then open to the world, upon conditions ap- 
proximating equality with the North, a result eminently desirable 
for the common interests of all, and scarcely attainable in any 
other manner. 

" Even if the blockade were continued during an armistice, 
the object desired could be greatly promoted. The cessation of 
our foreign commercial intercourse has been caused not by the 
blockade of our ports, but by a general cruise on the coast against 
all neutral commerce and the seizure of neutral vessels bound to 
points where not a blockading vessel was ever stationed. We have 
nozv numerous ports where there is not a single blockading 
vessel, but no trading vessel dares sail for them, for fear of cap- 
ture on the high seas by the Federal cruisers. If Europe, even 
at this late date, would put an effectual stop to this outrage on 
its rights of trade with a belligerent, we would soon be so well 
supplied with her manufactures and she would obtain so large a 
supply of our staples as would effectually deprive the North of 
the profits it hopes to reap by the unprecedented aquiescence 
of all nations in its interdict against their trade with us. In 
the event of an armistice, the crusade against neutral vessels 
could not, of course, be continued, even if the blockade were 
respected in ports where a blockading force is stationed. You 
are instructed to furnish a copy of this dispatch to Her Britannic 
Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at the earliest 
moment. 

" I have the honor to be^ sir, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN." 

" 24 Upper Seymour Street, 

PoRTMAN Square, 

" London, December 28th, 1862. 

" My Very Dear Wife: Your two last were of the 2d and 

nth November, both coming through the channel provided by 

our kind friend Macfarland ; the last was received on Christmas 



368 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



day, and was a most welcome and appropriate present. I re- 
ceived yesterday a large bundle of dispatches from Richmond, 
the latest of the 5th of November. Ask Cooper to say this to the 
Secretary of State, as I should not write of public matters through 
this channel. I think now, as a more speedy channel is opened 
to our correspondence, while it lasts, it may be better to trust to 
it than to take the risks and delays incident to running the 
blockade — par example. Vs. letter of the 29th of July, indorsed as 
sent by an officer of the army, reached me only on Christmas day, 
at same time as yours of nth November. 

" When yours came I was spending Christmas week at 
' Bedgebury Park,' the seat of Beresford Hope, Esq., some sixty 
miles from London, where I had a favourable opportunity of wit- 
nessing the customs and partaking the hospitalities of English 
country life on the most extended scale, including a country ball 
in the village, five miles ofif. I was their guest from Monday 
till Saturday, Except on a far more elaborate scale, admitted 
by their more elaborate wealth, I found their Christmas usages 
very much those on the Island, and at Clermont, according to 
my early recollections in the better days of the Old Dominion, 
an abundant interchange of presents, church in the private chapel 
on Christmas eve and Christmas evening, a large dinner every 
day, at which the country neighbours were guests, and, of course, 
service in the village church on the day of Christmas. 

" My host, Mr. Hope, is a descendant of the Field Marshal 
Beresford, who was the second in command to Wellington, in 
the wars of the Peninsula, and Lady Mildred Hope, sa femme, 
daughter of the Marquis of Salisbury. 

" I should tell you also of a most agreeable and interesting 
visit I made some three weeks ago to the University of Cam- 
bridge, at the invitation and as the guest of the Rev. George 
Williams, Senior of King's College. It was an occasion of 
annual scholastic festivity of ' Trinity College ' and ' King's 
College,' two of the seventeen colleges constituting the University 
of Cambridge. 

" I was most graciously received by all the college authori- 
ties, and had two capital dinners, at 'Trinity' and 'King's', respec- 
tively, with all the ceremonials since the days of Henry VI, in- 
cluding the ' Grace-cup ' after dinner, and the dessert of a 'last 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



369 



year's pippin/ with a dish of ' carraways,' for which I was re- 
ferred, as proof of its being an approved dessert in Old England, 
to Shakespeare, Henry IV, Act 5, Scene 3, and it was Hterally 
true that a part of the annual dessert of the Masters, Fellows, 
and Scholars of Trinity College, Cambridge, is a roasted pippin, 
with carraway seed." 

Dispatch No. 24, from Mr. Mason to the Department of 
State, contained nothing new or of special interest, and is 
omitted. 

Dispatch No. 25 begins with acknowledgments of dispatches 
received from the Department, and then says : " Your resume in 
No. 7 of our military operations contains many facts that had not 
otherwise reached us, and I have taken leave to publish it in 
The Index, with an introduction stating that it came from sources 
entitled to highest credit. That part of it which referred to the 
ultimate action of the President on his Retaliatory Order against 
General Pope, with his reasons for it, I had published in the 
London Morning Herald, as an extract from an ofificial dispatch 
received by me. It was sent to the editor with a note from Mr. 
Macfarland saying it was done with my permission. We had 
not before heard that no actual difference had been made in the 
treatment of General Pope's officers, far less had we heard that 
ofificial assurance had been given by the enemy that the obnox- 
ious order had been withdrawn. I was happy in the occasion of 
bringing both these facts, in a quasi-official form, before the 
British public. * * * * j am gratified to find from the dis- 
patch that what I did in supplying money to Captain Sinclair 
has met the approbation of the President, and that I have his like 
approbation of my determination to remain at my post, malgre 
the apparent incivility of the Foreign Office. The occasions con- 
stantly presenting themselves of rendering service outside of 
official channels, which none but a lepresentative of the Govern- 
ment could render, satisfy me that I have done right in remaining. 

" I have the honour to be, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 

Dispatch No. 26 only acknowledged receipt of drafts, from 
Department, for payment of salaries of Commissioners and other 
agents of the Confederate States then in Europe. 



370 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Dispatch No. 27. 
" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, January 15th, 1863. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : The latest intelligence of importance received here 
since the date of my last dispatches has been the great and signal 
defeat of the enemy at Fredericksburg, on the 13th of December, 
and the actual issuing of the proclamation of President Lincoln 
declaring freedom to the slaves in certain States and parts of 
States, on the ist of January instant. 

" The great success of our arms at Fredericksburg, being 
the sequel to events of like character in the late invasion of 
Virginia has fully confirmed opinion here that the avowed object 
of the war on the part of the North is hopeless, whe-ther that 
object be the restoration of the Union of the States, or the 
subjugation of the South, and has most favorably impressed the 
public mind with the courage, determination, and gallantry of 
our people. 

" Again, the success of the Democratic party in the North, 
and more especially in New York, has established a general 
belief here that the arm of the Federal must be, to a great extent, 
paralyzed, and that, henceforth, the war will languish — an opin- 
ion that finds strong corroboration in the utter derangement of 
the financial system of the Government, its inability to reinforce 
its armies, either by enlistment or by draft, and the information, 
coming from the North by every arrival, of demoralization of and 
desertion from its armies in the field. Still, what effect all this 
is to have upon the action of the British Government is problem- 
atical. I am, by no means, hopeful. 

" Parliament is to convene on the 5th of February, and 
though, I doubt not. a word from the Minister, suggesting that 
the time has arrived for Recognition, would bring a unanimous 
response in the affirmative, both from Ministerial and Opposition 
benches in the House of Commons, I do not think Lord Pal- 
merston is disposed to speak that word. Nor will the Tories 
make an issue with him on American affairs. The fact is, that 
parties are so nearly balanced in the House, and, as it would 
seem, in the country, that they are very wary in measuring 
strength with their opponents. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



371 



" The Abolition decree of the ist of January is characterized 
in the Times of this morning, in an article demonstrating that 
the Federal Government could not subdue the South by arms, as 
the ' execrable expedient of a servile insurrection,' and this, I 
think, will be the judgment passed upon it by all except the most 
ignorant classes in England. It will have an effect exactly oppo- 
site to that which was intended, if the object was to conciliate 
the anti-slavery of England. 

" I have nothing from Mr. Slidell since the Emperor's speech 
at the opening of the Chambers, which you will have seen long 
ere you receive this. In his last note, dated on the nth instant, 
he says : 

" ' I was at the Affaires Etrangeres yesterday. Mercier had 
written that Seward is in favour of an Armistice, and wishes the 
Emperor to propose it, but that Lincoln is decidedly opposed to 
a cessation of hostilities, and is determined to carry on the war at 
all hazards. I have reason to believe that the reports in the 
papers that Dayton has had interviews with the Emperor and M. 
Drouyn de Lhuys on the subject are true.' 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

" T. M. MASON." 

" 24 Upper Seymour Street, 

PoRTMAN Square, 
" London, January i8th, 1863. 

" My Dear Wife: It is a sad thing to be obliged to use an 
amanuensis, even in writing to you, but I have no alternative, 
otherwise I should be obliged to leave much unsaid. Mr. John 
Thompson, a young gentleman from South Carolina, leaving 
here to take the chance of running the blockade, I avail myself 
of it to send by him a package, containing sundry pairs of gloves, 
some pins, needles, and sewing silk, asked for in a memorandum 
from Ida, which came recently, through a letter of old date ; I 
hope they may reach safely. 

" We have been much cheered and encouraged here, by 
the late gallant defense of Fredericksburg, and the more recent 
intelligence of military successes in Tennessee, though as the 
account of these come altogether through the North, it is not 
easy to get a satisfactory view of what has occurred there. 



372 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" I am most hopeful, too, from the late political uprising in 
the Middle and Western States, of opposition to Lincoln's Gov- 
ernment, that through disaffection and distrust at home, that 
Government will soon be paralyzed, or at least will find many- 
impediments in its reckless conduct of the war. Failing this, 
I do not see any reasonable prospect of an early termination 
of the war. It is, however, idle to speculate here on what may 
result in the course of events on the Western continent, on which 
those around you are more competent to decide. This Govern- 
ment remains impassive and impenetrable as ever. In France, 
Mr. Slidell has had interviews with the Emperor two or three 
times, and sees the different members of the ministry at his 
pleasure, and almost every day. Here, I have seen none but 
Lord Russell, now nearly a year ago, and have never since had 
from any ministerial quarter, the least intimation of a desire to 
form acquaintance. Outside of that circle, however, and with 
those in higher position, I have been very kindly received, au 
reste. I find my time fully occupied, and am kept busy between 
correspondence and the calls of business ; I have a very large 
correspondence, incident to my position, and there are occasions 
in which I am oppressed by heavy responsibilities, in determin- 
ing what is proper to be done to sustain the Government here, 
in the absence of authority or instructions to meet unexpected 
events, etc. But so far I have gone right. 

" For the last four months, London has been in recess, that 
is to say that although more than three millions of people remain, 
living, and toiling, each class in its appropriate sphere within its 
walls, yet the common expression is, should you casually meet a 
friend, ' How completely London is deserted, there isn't a soul left 
in it.' 

" Parliament is to meet on the 5th of February, and then 
the great world will begin slowly to roll back, the circles of the 
public men will be enlarged, and to that extent London society 
will be established, but ' the season ' as it is called, meaning the 
access of the gay world proper, does not fairly begin until the 
ist of May, continuing until August, and then, all who can, 
again depart from London ; the landed gentry to their country 
homes. I am to go, by the way, on the day after to-morrow on 
a visit to the Marquis of Bath, at his seat of Longleat; these 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^j 

visits to the country, beside all the agreeable incidents connected 
with them, contribute much, I doubt not, to the excellent health 
I enjoy, — there, you get occasional glimpses of the sun, but in 
London, for ten minutes of feeble sunshine, you have ten days 
of impenetrable fog, with intervals only of hard rain. I sit by 
the window after breakfast to read the morning papers, and 
it is by no means unusual, to be obliged to leave the window 
and light the gas. They will tell you that such is only their 
winter climate, but I have been in London both winter and 
summer, and I confess I see no difference in the fogs and rain, 
and no great difference in the temperature. 

" God bless and preserve you, my dear wife until this sad 
war is over, when you will be at liberty to join me here. 
" With best love to all, 
" Yours ever, 

"J. M. MASON." 

[Unofficial.] 

This unofficial letter was not among Mr. Mason's papers, 
but was obtained from the Department in Washington : 

" 24 Upper Seymour Street, 

PoRTMAN Square, 

'' London, November 4th, 1862. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin. 

" Dear Sir : The contents of this note I have thought had 
better be unofficial, and thus not to go on the files of the De- 
partment, unless you should think otherwise ; and yet the matter, 
it seems to me, should at once be brought under the considera- 
tion of the President, that we may be ready when the time arrives. 

" I have the strongest reason to believe when, after recogni- 
tion, we shall come to the negotiation of the ordinary treaty of 
' Unity and Commerce,' this Government will require as a sine 
qua non the introduction of a clause, stipulating against the 
African slave trade. Although I well know the pertinacity of 
England on that subject, yet I had supposed that the voluntary 
act of the Confederate States Government, inhibiting this trade, 
by the enactment in the Constitution when the Government was 
first established, would have satisfied Bngland to be passive at 



o^^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

least, in her future intercourse with us ; I have now great reason 
to apprehend the contrary. 

" Some few days since, I dined with Lord Donoughmore, 
who was President of the Board of Trade during the late Derby 
administration, and will hold the same, or a higher office, should 
that party again come into power; a very intelligent gentleman, 
and a warm and earnest friend of the South. In the course of 
conversation after dinner, the subject came up incidentally while 
we were alone, and he said I might be satisfied that Lord Pal- 
merston would not enter into a treaty with us, unless we agreed 
in such treaty not to permit the African slave trade. I expressed 
my surprise at it, referring to the fact that we had voluntarily 
admitted that prohibition into the Constitution of the Confed- 
erate States, thereby taking stronger ground against the slave 
trade than had ever been taken by the United States ; that in the 
latter, it was only prohibited by law, whilst in the former not only 
was the power withheld from Congress, but the legislative branch 
of the Government was required to pass such laws as would 
effectually prevent it. 

" He said that was all well understood, but that such was the 
sentiment of England on this subject, that no minister would 
hold his place for a day, who should negotiate a treaty with 
any power, not containing such a clause ; nor could any House 
of Commons be found which would sustain a minister thus de- 
linquent, and he referred to the fact (as he alleged it to be), that 
in every existing treaty with England that prohibition was con- 
tained. He said further, that he did not mean to express his 
individual opinions, but that he was equally satisfied should the 
Palmerston ministry go out and the Tories come in, such would 
likewise be their necessary policy, and he added that he was well 
assured that England and France would be in accord on that 
subject. 

" I told him, in reply, that I feared this would form a formid- 
able obstacle if persisted in, to any treaty ; that he must be aware, 
that on all questions affecting African servitude, our Govern- 
ment was naturally and necessarily sensitive, when presented by 
any foreign power. We had learned from abundant experience 
that the anti-slavery sentiment was always aggressive ; that this 
condition of society was one which, in our opinion, the destinies 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^c 

of the South were indissolubly connected ; that as regarded 
foreign powers, it was with us a question purely domestic, with 
which our safety required that none should in any manner inter- 
fere : that, of course, I had no special instructions on the subject, 
but I thought I knew both the views of our Government and 
people ; and that (to express it in no stronger terms), it would be 
a most unfortunate thing if England should make such a stipula- 
tion a sine qua noii to a treaty. I said, further, that I presumed it 
might be averted by recognizing mutually the fact, that such a 
stipulation was not properly germane to a treaty purely com- 
mercial ; and thus to be laid over as a subject for future negotia- 
tion if pressed. He still maintained his belief that no matter who 
might be in power, it would be insisted on, in the first treaty to 
be formed. 

" A few days afterwards, Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, passing 
through town, came to see me. I had known him very well, and 
during the late session of Parliament, had seen a good deal of 
him. He is a man of ability and influence, was Under-Secretary 
for Foreign Affairs in the Derby administration, and will take 
the place of Lord Russell, it is supposed, should the Conserva- 
tives again come into power ; and he, too, is an earnest and 
sincere friend to our cause. I told him of my conversation with 
Lord Donoughmore and of my surprise at the opinion he enter- 
tained. 

" I regret to say that Mr. Fitzgerald coincided fully with 
Lord D. in these opinions, not as his own, but as those which 
must govern any ministry in England. 

" We shall, therefore, have this question to meet, I take for 
granted, at the time, and in the manner suggested. 

" I do not ask for any definite instructions in regard to it, 
but only bring it thus, unofficially, to the notice of the President 
and yourself. 

" Very respectfully and truly yours, 

"J. M. MASON." 

[Unofficial.] 
" Richmond, January 15th, 1863. 
" Hon. J. M. Mason, etc., etc., London. 

" Dear Sir : Your unofficial communication, enclosed in 
dispatch No. 20, was duly received. We are greatly surprised at 



376 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



its contents, but the suspicions excited abroad, through the 
numerous agencies estabHshed by the Northern Government, of 
■our intention to change the Constitution and open the slave trade 
are doubtless the cause of the views so strongly expressed to you 
by Lord Donoughmore and others. 

" After conference with the President we have come to the 
conclusion that the best mode of meeting the question is to 
assume the Constitutional ground developed in the accompanying 
dispatch, No. 13. 

" If you find yourself unable by the adoption of the line of 
conduct suggested in that dispatch, to satisfy the British Gov- 
ernment, I see no other course than to propose to them to trans- 
fer any negotiations that may have been commenced to this side, 
on the ground of the absence of any instructions or authority to 
bind your Government by any stipulations on the forbidden sub- 
ject, and the totally unexpected nature of the propositions made 
to you. 

" If the British Government should persist in the views you 
attribute to it, the matter can plainly be disposed of to much 
more advantage on this side, and it may very Avell happen that 
that haughty Government will find to its surprise that it needs 
a treaty of commerce with us, much more than we need it with 
Great Britain. Of this, however, I am sure you will allow no 
hint to escape you. 

" Very respectfully and truly yours, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN, 

" Secretary of State." 

"' From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State, to J. M. Mason. 
" Department of State, 

" Richmond, January 15th, 1863. 

"Sir: It has been suggested to this Government from a 
source of unquestionable authenticity that after the recognition 
of our independence by the European powers, an expectation is 
generally entertained by them that in our treaties of amity and 
commerce a clause will be introduced making stipulations against 
the African slave trade. 

" It is even thought that neutral powers may be inclined to 
insist upon the insertion of such a clause as a sine qua nan. 



UFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^y 

" You are well aware how firmly fixed in our Constitution is 
the policy of this Confederacy against the opening of that trade, 
but we are informed that false and invidious suggestions have 
been made by the agents of the United States at European 
courts, of our intention to change our Constitution as soon as 
peace is restored, and of authorizing the importation of slaves 
from Africa. If, therefore, you should find in your intercourse 
with the Cabinet to which you are accredited, that any such im- 
pressions are entertained, you will use every proper effort to 
remove them; and if an attempt is made to introduce into any 
treaty which you may be charged with negotiating, stipulations 
on the subject just mentioned, you will assume on behalf of your 
Government the position, which, under the direction of the Presi- 
dent, I now proceed to develop. 

" The Constitution of the Confederate States is an agree- 
ment between independent States. By its terms all the powers 
of the Government are separated into classes, viz : 

" ' First. Such powers as the States delegate to the General 
Government. 

" ' Second. Such powers as the States agree to refrain from 
exercising, although they do not delegate them to the General 
Government. 

" ' Third. Such powers as the States without delegating 
them to the General Government, thought proper to exercise by 
direct agreement between themselves contained in the Consti- 
tution. 

" ' Fourth. All remaining powers of sovereignty, which not 
being delegated to the Confederate States by the Constitution 
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States 
respectively or to the people thereof.' 

" On the formation of the Constitution, the States thought 
proper to prevent all possible future discussions on the subject 
of slavery, by the direct exercise of their own power and 
delegated no authority to the Confederate Government, save im- 
material exceptions presently to be noticed. 

" Especially in relation to the importation of African negroes, 
was it deemed important by the States that no power to permit it 
should exist in the Confederate Government. The States, by 
the Constitution (which is a treaty between themselves of the 



^y8 ^^^^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



most solemn character that States can make), unanimously 
stipulated that ' The importation of negroes of the African race 
from any foreign country other than the slave-holding States or 
territories of the United States of America is hereby forbidden ; 
and Congress is required to pass such laws as shall effectually 
prevent the same.' Art. I, Sec. 9, Par. I. 

" It will thus be seen that no power is delegated to the Con- 
federate Government over this subject, but that it is included in 
the third class above referred to, of powers exercised directly by 
the States. It is true that the duty is imposed on Congress to 
pass laws to render effectual the prohibition above quoted. But 
this very imposition of a duty on Congress is the strongest proof 
of the absence of the power in the President and Senate alone, 
who are vested with authority to make treaties. In a word, as 
the only provision on the subject directs the two branches of the 
legislative department, in connection with the President, to pass 
laws on this subject, it is out of the power of the President aided 
by one branch of the legislative department to control the same 
subject by treaties ; for there is not only an absence of express 
delegation of authority to the treaty-making power, which alone 
would suffice to prevent the exercise of such authority, but there 
is the implied prohibition resulting from the fact that all duty on 
the subject is imposed on a different branch of the Government. 

" I need scarcely enlarge upon the familiar principle that 
authority expressly delegated to Congress can not be assumed in 
our Government by the treaty-making power. The authority to 
lay and collect taxes, to coin money, to declare war, etc., etc., are 
ready examples, and you can be at no loss for argument or illus- 
tration in support of so well recognized a principle. 

" The view above expressed is further enforced by the clause 
in the Constitution which follows immediately that which has 
already been quoted. The second paragraph of the same section 
provides that ' Congress shall also have power to prohibit the 
introduction of slaves from any State not a member, or Territory 
not belonging to this Confederacy.' Here there is no direct ex- 
ercise of power by the States which formed our Constitution, but 
an express delegation to Congress. It is thus seen that while the 
States were willing to trust Congress with the power to prohibit 
the introduction of African slaves from the United States, they 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. oyg 

were not willing to trust it with the power of prohibiting their 
introduction from any other quarter, but determined to ensure 
the execution of their will by a direct interposition of their own 
power. 

" Moreover, any attempt on the part of the treaty-makmg 
power of this Government to prohibit the African slave trade, 
in addition to the insuperable objections above suggested, would 
leave open the implication that the same power has authority to 
permit such introduction. No such implication can be sanctioned 
by us. This Government unequivocally and absolutely denies its 
possession of any power whatever over the subject and can not 
entertain any proposition in relation to it. 

" While it is totally beneath the dignity of this Government 
to give assurances for the purpose of vindicating itself from any 
unworthy suspicions of its good faith on this subject that may 
be disseminated by the agents of the United States, it may not 
be improper that you should point out the superior efficacy of 
our Constitutional provision to any treaty stipulations we could 
make. The Constitution is itself a treaty between the States of 
such binding force that it can not be changed or abrogated with- 
out the deliberate and concurrent action of nine out of the 
thirteen States that compose the Confederacy. A treaty might be 
abrogated by a party temporarily in power in our country at the 
sole risk of disturbing amicable relations with a foreign power. 
The Constitution, unless by an approach to unanimity, could not 
be changed without the destruction of this Government itself; 
and even should it be possible hereafter to procure the consent of 
the number of States necessary to change it, the forms and delays 
designedly interposed by the framers to check rash innovations, 
would give ample time for the most mature deliberation and for 
strenuous resistance on the part of those opposed to such change. 

" After all, it is scarcely the part of wisdom to impose re- 
straint on the actions and conduct of men for all future time. 
The policy of the Confederacy is as fixed and immutable on this 
subject as the imperfections of human nature permits human 
resolve to be. 

" No additional agreements, treaties, or stipulations can 
commit these States to the prohibition of the African slave trade 
with more binding efficacv than those thev have themselves 



jSo 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



devised. A just and generous confidence in their good faith on 
this subject exhibited by friendly powers will be far more 
efficacious than persistent efforts to induce this Government to 
assume the exercise of powers which it does not possess, and to 
bind the Confederacy by ties which would have no constitutional 
validity. 

" We trust therefore that no unnecessary discussions on this 
matter will be introduced into your negotiation. If, unfortu- 
nately, this reliance should prove ill-founded, you will decline 
continuing negotiations on your side and transfer them to us at 
home, where in such event they could be conducted with greater 
facility and advantage, under the direct supervision of the 
President. 

" Very respectfully your obedient servant, 

" T. P. BENJAMIN." 

Dispatch No. 28. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, January 31st, 1863. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I have a letter from M. Bellot des Minieres, who has 
a contract with the War Department for furnishing certain sup- 
plies, transmitting to me copies of an official correspondence 
addressed by the Minister of Marine and of Colonies to Admiral 
Jurien, commanding the French naval forces ofT Mexico, the 
substance of which M. Bellot requests I should make known to 
the Government. 

"The Minister of Marine, under date the 17th and 20th of 
January, advises the French Admiral that certain vessels were 
sent by M. Bellot from ports in England and France to Mata- 
moras in Mexico, and would return thence to Havre laden with 
cotton for account of M. Bellot; and the Minister recommends 
those vessels to the cognizance, and protection, if necessary, of 
the French Admiral. 

" M. Bellot further requests that I would invite the attention 
of the Government to these facts as suggestive of any interven- 
tion on its part to facilitate the movement of cotton to Mata- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA8JN. 



381 



moras, for trans-shipment thence, which I have the honour to do 
accordingly, and am 

" Very respectfully, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 29. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, February 5th, 1863, 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir: Since my No. 28 of the 31st of January, which goes 
with this, I learn that the ship intended to take it is yet detained. 
I am enabled thus to report to the Department, two transactions 
in cotton made by Major Caleb Huse, C. S. A., for account of the 
War Department, the details of which will, of course, be reported 
by that officer to his superiors. 

" The first — an engagement for the delivery of two million, 
three hundred thousand pounds of cotton, to enable him to make 
a purchase for his Department, then to be made, on favorable 
terms, and much wanted ; the second — a like engagement by the 
same officer for the delivery of five millions of pounds of cotton, 
at fivepence sterling per pound, as payment pro-tanto of indebted- 
ness on his part for supplies purchased and shipped to the War 
Department; and which, as he showed me, it was imperiously 
necessary to provide for. 

" In regard to both these transactions, I did no more than to 
endorse my approval of them on the certificates, as Commissioner 
of the Confederate States : in the first case, being satisfied of the 
authority of Major Huse to make purchases of the character in- 
dicated ; and of the necessity for such supplies ; in the last case 
being equally satisfied from the correspondence of Major Huse 
with the War Department that they were aware of his having 
incurred a much larger indebtedness, which that Department had 
sought to provide for by remittances in Confederate bonds, but 
which bonds could not be used here just now. 

" In reference to the general subject of indebtedness here, 
for account of the War and Navy Departments, by their respect- 
ive agents, I have felt it incumbent on me — though without ex- 
press authority, under existing circumstances to extend all aid 



382 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



in my power to those agents, to enable them to meet their 
engagements, and thus to preserve as of the last importance, the 
credit of the Government. 

" As you are probably aware, large remittances have been 
recently made, as well by the Treasury, as by the War and Navy 
Departments, to their respective agents in England, of Con- 
federate bonds, as well as of cotton certificates, in the form 
adopted by the Treasury Department. After their arrival, and 
after full consultation with the gentlemen to whom they were 
entrusted, it was deemed judicious not to put the cotton certifi- 
cates, at least, upon the market, until we could learn the result 
of the proposals for a direct loan which had been sent by a 
special messenger to Richmond, by a banking house on the Con- 
tinent ; lest by doing so (should the proposal be accepted), we 
might disturb the market on which those bankers relied to dis- 
pose of their loan. Thus, although at great inconvenience to 
existing engagements, no steps have been taken here in regard 
to disposing of the cotton certificates sent from the Treasury. 

" The same reason not applying to the Confederate money- 
bonds, Mr. Spence, as financial agent, occupied himself in the 
proper form of inquiry as to disposing of them ; but, unfortu- 
nately within the past two weeks, because of some disturbance of 
capital here, the rate of interest has been raised by the Bank of 
England, from three per cent., at which it had long stood, 
at first to four, and afterwards to five per cent. ; at which 
latter rate it now is, but with general expectations of a yet further 
advance. Mr. Spence's inquiries, therefore, were unsatisfactory, 
and so far fruitless. It was in this stagnation and difficulty that 
I felt called on to sanction the cotton operations above noted of 
Major Huse — the case he presented being the most urgent. 

" I have deemed it proper to make this full report to you, 
although of matters pertaining to other departments of the Gov- 
ernment; and I hope my action in the premises will meet with 
approval. 

" Yesterday, I learned by a note from Mr. Slidell, that intel- 
ligence had been received at Paris by the bankers in question, 
from Richmond, that the loan had been accepted by our Govern- 
ment to the extent of two millions sterUng — the Government 
declining a larger amount, although proposed. We have, as yet, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



3S3 



received no details, nor is it known when the money is to be 
available here. It is assumed, however, that the loan will, by 
no means, yield its nominal amount ; but whatever that may be, 
I am disposed to think it will not be sufficient to meet engage- 
ments here existing, and under orders that are prospective. Still, 
in the absence of full information, I am disposed to think it well 
that a larger amount was not taken on the French proposals, 
especially, should it have been arranged for an enlargement of 
the loan if required. 

" I am still strongly of opinion that the true mode of raising 
money here will be found to be by prospective sales of cotton, in 
the form, if not in the actual terms prescribed by the cotton 
certificates from the Treasury ; and although it may be that loss 
will result to the Government by the difference in price at which 
they purchase and sell ; yet regarding the state of exchange, and 
the heavy losses to be incurred in any negotiation of Confederate 
money-bonds, I think that cotton will be found the best basis for 
supply. As I have said, we have not yet tested the market, but 
as there is a growing expectation here that a peace is impending, 
these cotton certificates, I think, will improve in value; and as 
the prospect for peace increases, of course, that value will aug- 
ment. 

" In a communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, he 
informs me that he is actively at work purchasing cotton. I do 
not think a more effective measure could be adopted to 
strengthen the financial position of the Government. Cotton, as 
the property of the Government, will always be, in Europe, a sure 
basis of credit — so sure, as to engage money on better terms than 
any other form of credit. In this connection, and in regard to 
any future operations that may be required here, I would suggest 
that I be kept informed, from time to time (or by each dispatch), 
of the quantity of cotton actually possessed by the Government. 
Such inquiries are made of me, and the information would be 
deemed valuable here in any cotton operations. 

" The last New York papers contain, published at length, 
various dispatches from your department, as well as others, in- 
tercepted, as it would appear, by the enemy's cruisers. Amongst 
them, yours to me of the 21st of September and 28th of October 
— duplicates, I suppose, as the originals had previously reached 



384 ^I^^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



me ; a duplicate of Mr. Memmenger to me of the 24th of October, 
and his triplicate of the 25th of the same month ; Mr. Mallory's 
duplicate to me of the 26th of October, had also been received : 
but to the enemy I am indebted for the first receipt of a letter 
from Mr. Mallory to me of the 30th of October. 

" It is certainly unfortunate that the messenger to whom 
these dispatches were intrusted, permitted their capture, although 
I am not aware of any particular inconvenience to arise from it, 
except so far as they refer to operations here of the War and 
Navy Departments. 

" I have, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 

Dispatch No. 14. 

"J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner 
Confederate States to Great Britain. 
" Department of State, 

" Richmond, February 6th, 1863. 

" Sir : I enclose you copy of a circular recently sent by me 
to the different consuls of foreign powers announcing the raising 
of the blockade of Charleston by our superior forces. 

" That at Galveston was raised in the same manner, and this 
morning's papers announce the capture of three Federal vessels 
at Sabine Pass and the opening of that harbor by the breaking of 
the blockade by superior force. Of this last fact we have no 
official knowledge. 

" We scarcely suppose that this intelligence will have any 
eflfect on the conduct of the European powers, whose settled 
determination to overlook any aggression on their rights by the 
United States has been exhibited under all circumstances, how- 
ever aggravated, in a manner so unmistakable that we have 
ceased to expect impartiality at their hands. 

" The recent losses of the enemy in vessels are considerable, 
I append an imperfect list : 

" I. The gunboat ' Sidell,' destroyed on Tennessee River. 

" 2. The ironclad ' Monitor,' sunk at sea. 

" 3, The gunboat ' Columbia,' wrecked on coast. 

" 4. The gunboat ' Cairo,' blown up by torpedo in Yazoo 
River. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^85 

" 5. The steamer ' Harriet Lane/ captured at Galveston, 

" 6. The gunboat ' Westfield,' blown up at Galveston. 

" 7. The gunboat ' Mercedita,' sunk off Charleston. 

" 8. The gunboat ' ,' sunk off Charleston. 

" 9. The gunboat ' Isaac P. Smith,' captured in Stone 
River. 

" 10. The gunboat * / burnt in North Carolina. 

" II. The gunboat ' Hatteras,' sunk off Galveston. 

" Besides the above are three vessels just announced to have 
been captured at Sabine Pass, and several others much damaged 
by Flag Officer Ingraham's squadron off Charleston. So that 
upon the whole our success on the water has not been incon- 
siderable. 

" In addition to the above some twenty of their transport 
steamers have been captured or destroyed on our inland waters 
within the last sixty days, while the ' Alabama ' and ' Florida ' 
have not been idle at sea. Of the general aspect of the war you 
will be able to judge by the newspapers of the North which paint 
their own condition in colors so dark that we can scarcely desire 
to add anything to the gloomy picture. Public feeling with us 
is bright and confident, almost too much so. The conviction that 
a disruption or revolution of some sort will take place at the 
North within a very short period is daily gaining ground. 

" Yours, very respectfully, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN." 

The circulars referred to in the dispatch above read : 

Circular to the Consuls. 

" Department of State, 

"Richmond, January 31st, 1863. 
" Sir : I am instructed by the President of the Confederate 
States of America to inform you that this Government has re- 
ceived an official dispatch from Flag Officer Ingraham command- 
ing the naval forces of the Confederacy on the coast of South 
CaroHna, stating that the blockade of the harbor of Charleston 
has been broken by the complete dispersion and disappearance of 
the blockading squadron in consequence of a successful attack 
made on it by the ironclad steamers commanded by Flag Officer 



^S6 ^^P^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Ingraham. During this attack one or more of the blockading 
vessels were sunk or burnt. 

" As you are doubtless aware that by the law of nations a 
blockade, when thus broken by superior force, ceases to exist and 
can not be subsequently enforced unless established de novo with 
adequate force and after due notice to neutral powers, it has been 
deemed proper to give you the information herein contained for 
the guidance of such vessels of nations as may choose to carry on 
commerce wif.h the now open port of Charleston. 
" Respectfully, etc., etc., 

"J. P.BENJAMIN. 

Secretary of State. 
" Mr. George Moore, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at 
Richmond." 

Circular. 

" Department of State, 

" Richmond, February 7th, 1863. 

" Sir : I have again to inform you of the raising of the 
blockade of two Southern ports by superior forces. 

" This Government is officially informed of the total dis- 
persion and disappearance of the blockading squadron recently 
stationed ofif Galveston harbor by the combined attack of land 
and naval forces of the Confederacy. In this attack the enemy's 
steamer ' Harriet Lane,' was captured, and the flag-ship of the 
squadron, the ' Westfield,' was blown up and destroyed. The 
blockade of the port of Galveston is therefore at an end. 

" The armed river boats which raised the blockade at Gal- 
veston then proceeded to Sabine Pass, where they again attacked 
the enemy's blockaders, captured thirteen guns, large quantities 
of stores and a number of prisoners. No blockading fleet now 
exists off Sabine Pass, and the steamers of the Confederacy were, 
at the last account, cruising ofif the Pass with no enemy in sight. 

" This information for the guidance of such of the merchants 
of your nation as may desire to trade with either of the open 
ports of Galveston or Sabine Pass. 

" Respectfully your obedient servant, 
" J. P. BENJAMIN, 

" Secretary of State." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



3S7 



Dispatch No. 16. 

" Department of State, 

" Richmond, 21st February, 1863. 
" Hon. J. M. Mason. 

" Sir : The expeditions of the enemy against Vicksburg, 
and against Charleston and Savannah, have thus far recoiled from 
the dangers which threaten any attempt to storm those formid- 
able positions, and the army of Northern Virginia has been 
weakened by heavy details sent to the lower James River. No 
immediate operations in Virginia are at all likely, and attention is 
fixed on the Atlantic coast and the Mississippi Valley. We await 
the onset with calm confidence. 

" I enclose you a correspondence with the British Consul on 
the subject of Hester's case which relieves us from all embar- 
rassment on that subject which was feared, as was mentioned in 
my No. 15. 

" I send for your further information a copy of a further cor- 
respondence with that official on the subject of his exequatur. 

" I learn with gratification through Mrs. Mason that all my 
dispatches down to 5th November had been received by you. 
" I am, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" T. P. BENJAMIN." 

Dispatch No. 30. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, February 9th, 1863. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I have the honor to enclose you, herewith, a full 
report of the proceedings and debate in Parliament on the 
Queen's ' speech,' at the first day of the session. Whilst both 
ministry and opposition agree that the separation of the States 
is final, yet both equally agree, that in their judgment, the time 
has not yet arrived for recognition. Both parties are guided in 
this, by a fixed English purpose to run no risk of a broil, even far 
less a war, with the United States. For us, it only remains to be 
silent and passive. The ground taken by Lord Derby, that 



j88 L^P^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

recognition without other intervention would have no fruits, is 
constantly assumed here by those who are against any move- 
ment ; and with those willingly deaf, it is vain to argue. I hope, 
at an early day of the session, on a call to be made, my cor- 
respondence with the Foreign Ofifice will be laid before Parlia- 
ment; the EngHsh people will then at least, have the Southern 
view of the effect of such simple recognition. 

" It is thought here that if from no other cause, the war 
must soon come to an end from sheer inability in the Lincoln 
Government to carry it on. 

" Our latest military advices are the damaging blows dealt to 
the enemy at Murfreesboro ; the late signal and unexampled naval 
victory at Galveston ; and, to-day, in the report by telegram, that 
the enemy's gunboat ' Hatteras ' after a sharp action with one of 
our ' little navy ' supposed to be the ' Alabama,' the ' Oreto,' or 
the * Harriet Lane ' had been sunk. The report comes from 
Queenstown by a vessel just arrived there from Nova Scotia. 
The public here, schooled by experience, look just as confidently 
by each arrival for news of Southern successes, as you await 
them in Richmond. 

" As yet, I have not even an acknowledgment from the 
Foreign Office of the receipt of my letter of the 3d of January, 
containing the protest you instructed me to make on the failure 
of the Secretary to answer the inquiries put to him. The letter 
was delivered by Mr. Macfarland, and there can be no question, 
therefore, of its receipt. Strange contumacy from such a quarter. 
" I have the honour to be, etc., etc., 

" TAMES M. MASON." 

An incident that occurred only two days after the date of 
this last dispatch, would certainly seem to encourage the belief 
so frequently expressed by Mr. Mason, that Earl Russell was not 
really a fair exponent of the feelings or opinions of the English 
people. 

The occasion referred to was recorded in Mr. Mason's 
private memoranda for the benefit of his family ; it was also 
noticed in the Times. Both accounts are here given. 

Mr. Mason said of it February nth, 1863: "Dined at the 
Mansion House by invitation from the Lord Mayor and Lady 
Mayoress. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



389 



" Each estate in the realm represented — the Houses of Lords 
and Commons, the Church, the Army and Navy, with the sheriffs 
and municipaHty of London. Some three hundred ladies and 
gentlemen present. 

" The dinner was served in the Egyptian Hall, with all the 
paraphernalia of a civic banquet. After the cloth was removed, 
the toasts were announced by the master of the ceremonies — each 
accompanied by a short, appropriate address, in the following 
order. The Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Royal Family, 
the Army and Navy, the House of Lords, the Commons, the 
Sheriff of London, the Aldermen of London, and last. Distin- 
guished guests, as whom were named Mr. Mason, Commissioner 
from the Confederate States of America, and the Mayor of Que- 
bec. As arranged in the programme, the Mayor of Quebec only 
was called on to respond to the toast, which he did in appropriate 
terms. I should have remarked when my name was announced 
by the Mayor, it was received with a storm of applause, and 
when the Mayor of Quebec concluded his remarks that storm was 
renewed, with calls upon me by name from every quarter of the 
hall. My seat was nearly opposite to the Lord Mayor, and by 
silent, though intelligent glances, he inquired whether I would 
respond to the call — of course I assented, and thus without notice 
or preparation, made an address to the Mayor and Livery of 
London. 

"When we returned to the drawing-room, the Mayor came 
to me and said, whilst announcing me as a guest, he did not feel 
at liberty to put me in the programme for a speech, and hoped 
I was not disturbed when the company decreed otherwise. 

" The invitation was for 6 p. m. We were seated at half-past 
six, and the dinner lasted until half-past ten. Music, with songs 
and glees from a choir, filled the intervals between the toasts." 

Extract From an English Newspaper. 

" Mr. Mason, the Commissioner from the American Con- 
federate States : 

" Last evening, this gentleman made a speech in public, at 
a banquet at the Mansion House, in reference to the existing 
relations between the Confederate States of Ameriea, of which he 



^go ^I^'E ^^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



is here the accredited representative, and the EngHsh Govern- 
ment, by whom he is as yet unrecognized. 

" Towards the close of the entertainment, the Lord Mayor 
proposed the toast of ' The Visitors,' referring particularly to 
the presence of the Mayor of Quebec and Mr. Mason. The men- 
tion of the latter gentleman's name elicited loud cheers. His 
Lordship proceeded to say, alluding to Mr. Mason, that although 
he could not greet that gentleman as a recognized plenipoten- 
tiary to this country, he was perfectly justified, by virtue of his 
position as chief magistrate of the City of London, in offering to 
him, and to all gentlemen who came to this country on any im- 
portant public business, a hearty welcome in his official residence. 
They, as citizens of London, deeply deplored the disastrous Vv^ar 
which was being waged on the American continent, and longed, 
in common with the rest of their countrymen and of the civilized 
world, to see it brought to some satisfactory termination. He 
gave ' The Visitors,' coupling with the toast the name of the 
Mayor of Quebec. 

" Mr. Pope, the Mayor, briefly acknowledged the compli- 
ment in an animated speech. 

" Mr. Mason, responding to an urgent invitation of the 
company, presented himself to speak, and was received with 
enthusiastic cheers. He said: 'My Lord Mayor, my Lady 
Mayoress, my lords and ladies, and gentlemen, but that I feel 
deeply the obligations I am under to the honored Chief Magis- 
trate of this city for permission to be present to-night, I should 
feel strongly disposed to pick a quarrel. His Lordship has not 
chosen to remember that here in England I am not considered 
of full age, that I am yet in my minority. The Government of 
England — we all know, honoured from ages, and always a wise 
Government in its generation — has declared that the country 
which I represent beyond that broad water has not yet attained 
years of discretion, and is not capable of managing its own affairs 
(laugh). I say, therefore, that but for the kind and generous 
manner in which I have been received by this honoured company, 
and in the presence of your Chief Magistrate, I should have been 
disposed to say, in the language of a poet : 

" 'You would scarce expect one of my age 
To speak in public from the stage.' 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^^i 

" 'My Lord Mayor, I am a stranger in London — or rather, 
I was a stranger ; but I have learnt that since I came to London 
that none of EngHsh blood from my own Southern land are 
strangers among you (cheers). I speak this from my heart 
(cheers), for I have been, by every circle in England and by every 
class of society, a welcome and an honoured guest (cheers). I 
return my sincere thanks to you for the kindness with which 
you have listened to a stranger. The day will come (great 
cheering) — it is not far off — when the relationship between the 
Government which is now in its infant fortune and yours will be 
one of close and intimate alliance (renewed cheers). 

" ' I say this more especially as regards the city of London, 
which is the great market for the world. My country is the 
unrivalled producer of the great staples of the world, and I say 
the relations — commercial, doubtless political, certainly social — 
between my honoured countrymen and the people of London 
will before long be one of the most intimate character (cheers).' " 

The following letter is interesting, as expressive of the feel- 
ings and opinion of those present on the occasion. The writer 
(an Englishman) held so high and responsible a position in the 
commercial world, his testimony has peculiar value : 

Black Ball Line, , 

British and Australian Packets, 

T. M. Mackay & Co., London. 

" London, February 12th, 1863. 

" I Leadenhall Street, E. C. 
" My Dear Spence : I was at the Mansion House last night 
and heard the Lord Mayor virtually recognize the South in the 
quietest and most inoffensive way that could be imagined. The 
Times gives a very good report of what Mr. Mason said, but 
no description can picture the effect of his calm and dignified 
delivery of these simple sentences — John Kemble as ' Corio- 
lanus ' was never so grand, and Mr. Mason's pauses were elo- 
quence itself — you might have heard a pin fall except at the 
tumultuous interruptions arising from sympathy and admiration. 
It was a scene to be remembered in one's lifetime, and something 
to say to my grandchildren. 



0Q2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" As I came out I rubbed shoulders with Captain Tinker, 
Grinnell's partner, and I said, jocularly, ' Well, you see the Lord 
Mayor has been and gone and done it.' He laughingly replied : 
' Oh, yes, it 's all over now.' Depend on it, this expression of 
opinion from the heart of England's middle classes must tell. 
It will reverberate thro' the land and find an echo — it may be, 
even in the North itself. Had you been there with your bonds 
they would all have disappeared as readily as the Greenfat. 
Could I say more? 

" Yours truly, 

" T. M. MACKAY." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. og^ 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Brilliant Success of Confederate Loan — England Apprehends Trouble with 
United States— Correspondence with Earl Russell About Blockade^De- 
partment Sends Design of the Confederate Flag — Description of Seal for 
Confederate States, with Instructions to Have it Made in England-r-Mr. 
McCrea has Management of Loan — Extracts from Private Letters — Fed- 
eral Recruiting in Ireland — Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Lindsay Visit the Em- 
peror — Minutes of Their Conversation. 

In dispatch No. 31, dated March 19, 1863, Mr. Mason says: 
" I am most happy to record here (though the news will 
have reached you long before you get this dispatch), the decided 
and brilliant success of the Confederate loan. Mr. Erlanger, 
who has been for the last ten days in London, seems to have 
worked it with great skill, diligence and tact. He has conferred 
freely and frankly with me, and as there was a strong opinion in 
monied circles of the city that the enterprise was a hazardous 
one, and likely to fail in the market, I am the more impressed by 
the judgment and good sense evinced by Mr. Erlanger. It was 
placed on the market yesterday, when more than five millions 
sterling were subscribed at once ; and before night it commanded 
a premium of four and a half to five per cent. What has been 
subscribed at Liverpool and on the Continent we have not heard, 
but the books do not close until to-morrow at 2 p. m, 

" I saw Erlanger last night, who was, of course, much 
gratified at his success. He does not doubt that the entire sub- 
scription will reach, most probably exceed, ten millions. Although 
doubtless the large subscription was made in expectation of 
profit, yet I know, from many sources, that very large sums were 
subscribed from a single desire to serve the Confederate cause, 
and the leading houses in London and Paris subscribed largely." 
The^following extract is taken from the same dispatch : 
" We are looking with great interest here to the progress 
of events in the Northern States. It is thought, as things 
stand there, that our earliest hopes of peace may be looked to 
from their weakness at home. Opinion is gaining ground that, 
Ml their desperation, they will provoke, by design, a war with 
England, to avert an internecine war at home. 



jg^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" Having no intercourse, unofficial or otherwise, with any 
member of the Government here, I can gather opinion only from 
those who have, and referring to such source, I have a strong 
opinion that there are those in the Cabinet who anticipate, by 
each mail from the North, accounts of hostilities actually begun 
against England. I tell them I fear I am almost selfish enough to 
hope their anticipations may not be disappointed." 

"Another from same dispatch, dated March 25: 

" I enclose, cut from the London Times of yesterday, a short 
debate in the House of Lords of the day before, between Lord 
Stratheden and Earl Russell, on a motion of the former in regard 
to recognition of the'Southern Confederacy. 

" You will find it leaves the question pretty much where 
it found it, but the concluding paragraphs of Earl Russell's re- 
marks contain expressions which seem strongly to import, and 
by design, a double meaning. His Lordship admits, in sub- 
stance, that our independence is achieved, and at some day it 
may become necessary for England to recognize it, but he throws 
out to the English people what the responsibility of that Min- 
istry will be which recognizes a State that vindicates African 
slavery. 

" The 'Sumter,' you are aware, has been sold to a British 
house. After the sale, which the United States Consul there 
tried in various ways to frustrate, a constant watch was kept on 
her by a Federal ship in waiting. She escaped, however, on 
a dark night, and arrived safely at Liverpool." 

Accompanying this dispatch was the annexed correspon- 
dence with Earl Russell. 

" From Earl Russell: 

" Foreign Office, February 10, 1863. 

" Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of January, referring to the letter which you addressed to 
me on the 7th of July last, referring to the interpretation placed 
by Her Majesty's Government on the declaration with regard to 
blockade appended to the Treaty of Paris. 

" I have, in the first place, to assure you that Her Majesty's 
Government would much regret if you should feel that any want 
of respect was intended by the circumstance of a mere acknowl- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



3Q5 



edgment of your letters having hitherto been addressed to you. 

" With regard to the question contained in it, I have to say 
that Her Majesty's Government see no reason to qualify the lan- 
guage employed in my dispatch addressed to Lord Lyons of the 
15th of February last. It appears to Her Majesty's Government 
to be suf^ciently clear that the declaration of Paris could not 
have been intended to mean that a port must be so blockaded 
as really to prevent access in all winds, and independently of 
whether the communication might be carried on of a dark night, 
or by means of small, low steamers or coasting craft creeping 
along the shore — in short, that it was necessary that the com- 
munication with a port under blockade should be utterly and 
absolutely impossible under any circumstances. 

" In further illustration of this remark, I may say that there 
is no doubt a blockade would be in legal existence, although a 
sudden storm or change of wind occasionally blew off the block- 
ading squadron. 

" This is a change to which, in the nature of things, every 
blockade is liable. Such an accident does not suspend, much less 
break, a blockade. Whereas, on the contrary, the driving off 
a blockading force by a superior force does break a blockade, 
which must be renewed de novo, in the usual form, to be binding 
upon neutrals. 

" The Declaration of Paris was in truth directed against 
what were once called paper blockades, that is, blockades not 
sustained by any actual, or by a notoriously inadequate, naval 
force, such as the occasional appearance of a man-of-war in the 
offing, or the like. 

" The inadequacy of the force to maintain the blockade, 
must, indeed always, to a certain degree, be one of fact and evi- 
dence, but it does not appear that in any of the numerous cases 
brought before the Prize Courts in America the inadequacy of 
the force has been urged by those who would have been most 
interested in urging it against the legality of the seizure. 

" The interpretation placed, therefore, by Her Majesty's 
Government on the Declaration of Paris was, that a blockade, 
in order to be respected by neutrals, must be practically effective. 

" At the time I wrote my dispatch to Lord Lyons, Her 
Majesty's Government was of the opinion that the blockade of the 



.396 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Southern ports could not be otherwise regarded, and certainly 
the manner in which it has since been enforced gives to neutral 
Governments no excuse for asserting that the blockade has not 
been efficiently maintained. 

" It is proper to add that the same view of the meaning and 
effect of the Article of the Declaration of Paris on the subject of 
blockade which is above explained, was taken by the Representa- 
tive of the United States (Mr. Dallas), at the Court of St. James 
during the communications which passed between the two Gov- 
ernments some years before the present war, with a view to the 
accession of the United States to that declaration. 
" I have the honor to be, etc., 

" RUSSELL. 
" /. M. Mason, Esqr." 

" 24 Upper Seymour Street, 

" PoRTMAN Square, 

" February 16, 1863. 
^' The Right Hon. Earl Russell, 

" Her Majesty's Secretary of State 

" For Foreign Affairs. 
" My Lord : I deem it incumbent upon me to ask the 
attention of Her Majesty's Government to recent intelligence re- 
ceived here in regard to the blockade in Galveston, in the State 
of Texas, and at Charleston, in the State of South Carolina. 

" First, as regards Galveston, it appears that the blockading 
squadron was driven from that port and harbor by a superior 
Confederate force, on the first day of January last; one ship of 
that squadron was captured, the flagship destroyed, and the rest 
escaped, making their way, it is said, to some point on the South- 
ern coast occupied by the United States forces. Whatever block- 
ade of the port of Galveston, therefore, may have previously ex- 
isted, I submit was effectually raised and destroyed by the 
superior forces of the party blockaded. 

" Again, as respects the port of Charleston — through the 
ordinary channels of intelligence we have information, uncon- 
tradicted, that the alleged blockade of that port was in like man- 
ner raised and destroyed by a superior Confederate force, at an 
early hour on the 31st of January ultimo, two ships of the block- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



397 



ading squadron having been sunk, a third escaped disabled, and 
what remained of the squadron afloat was entirely driven off the 
coast. 

" I have the honour to submit, therefore, that any alleged 
pre-existing blockade of the ports aforesaid was terminated at 
Galveston on the ist of January last, and at Charleston on the 
31st of the same month — a principle clearly stated in a letter I 
have had the honor to receive from your Lordship, dated on the 
loth instant. 

" I am aware that official information of either of these events 
may not yet have reached the Government of Her Majesty ; but 
the consequences attending the removal of the blockade (whether 
to be renewed or no) are so important to the commercial in- 
terests involved, that I could lose no time in asking that such 
measures may be taken by Her Majesty's Government in rela- 
tion thereto as will best tend to the resumption of a commercial 
intercouse so long placed under restraint. 

" I avail myself of this occasion to acknowledge the receipt 
of your Lordship's letter of the loth of February instant, to 
which I shall have the honor of sending a reply in the course of a 
day or two, and am 

" With great respect, etc., 

"J. M. MASON, 

" Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America." 



" Foreign Office, February i6th, 1863. 

" Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of this date, calling my attention to the occurrences, as 
reported in the public prints, at Galveston and Charleston on 
the I St and 31st of January respectively, and I have the honor to 
inform you that your letter shall be considered by Her Majesty's 
Government. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

" RUSSELL. 
"/. M. Mason, Esqr." 



39^ 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80¥. 



" 24 Upper Seymour Street, 

" PoRTMAN Square, 

" February 18, 1863. 
" The Right Hon. Earl Russell, etc., etc.: 

" My Lord: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 
of your letter of the loth of February instant, in answer to mine 
of the 3d of January last, but referring more especially to in- 
quiries which I had the honor to address to your Lordship under 
the instructions of the Secretary of State of the Confederate 
States of America, on the 7th day of July last, concerning the 
interpretation placed by Her Majesty's Government on the 
declaration of the principle of blockade agreed to in the Con- 
vention of Paris. I shall, as early as practicable, communicate 
the letter of your Lordship to the Government at Richmond, but 
will anticipate here the satisfaction with which the President will 
receive the assurance of your Lordship that no want of respect 
was intended by a mere acknowledgment, without other reply, to 
the inquiries contained in my letter of July. 

" In regard to so much of the letter of your Lordship as 
relates to the interpretation placed by the Government of Her 
Majesty on that part of the Declaration of Paris which prescribed 
the law of blockade, I am constrained to say that I am well 
assured the President can not find in it a like source of satisfac- 
tion. It is considered by him that the terms used in that Con- 
vention are too precise and definite to admit of being qualified — 
or, perhaps it may be more appropriate to say revoked, by the 
superadditions thereto contained in your Lordship's exposition 
of them. 

" The terms of that convention are, that the blockading force 
must be sulBcient really to pret^ent access to the coast; no excep- 
tion is made in regard to dark nights, favorable winds, the size or 
model of vessels successfully evading it, or the character of the 
coast or waters blockaded; and yet, it would seem, from your 
Lordship's letter, that all these are to be taken into consideration 
on the question whether the blockade is, or is not to be respected. 
What might be considered a small or low steamer coming in 
from sea at the port of New York would, at one of those 
Southern ports, be rated a vessel of very fair average size, when 
referred to the ordinary stage of water on its bar ; yet, I look in 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jqq 

vain, in the terms of the convention referred to, for any authority 
to expound them in subordination to the depth of water, or size 
or mold of vessels finding ready and comparatively safe access to 
the harbor. 

" In acceding to the terms of that treaty, great advantages 
were yielded to a maritime neutral, with like immunities to a mari- 
time belligerent. The property of the neutral is safe under the 
flag of the belligerent, and the property of the belligerent equally 
safe under the flag of the neutral ; the only equivalent to the 
belligerent not maritime, but dependent on other nations as 
carriers, is this strictly-defined principle of the law of blockade, 
which the Confederate States presumed was extended to them, 
when, at the request of Her Majesty's Government, they became 
parties to those stipulations of the Convention of Paris of 
1856. It results that after yielding full equivalents the stipula- 
tions in regard to blockade reserved as the only one beneficial 
to them, would seem illusory. 

" In regard to the character of this blockade, to which your 
Lordship again reverts in the remark that the manner in which 
it has been enforced gives to neutral Governments no excuse for 
asserting that it has not been efificiently maintained, although I 
have not been instructed to make any further representations to 
Her Majesty's Government on that subject, since its decision to 
treat it as effective, I can not refrain from adding that for many 
months past the frequent arrival and departure of vessels (most 
of them steamers) from several of these ports have been matters 
of notoriety. A single steamer has evaded the blockade success- 
fully, and most generally from Charleston, more than thirty times. 
And within a few days past, it has been brought to my knowledge 
that two steamers arrived in January last, and within ten days 
of each other, at Wilmington, North Carolina, from ports in 
Europe — one of them four hundred and the other five hundred 
tons burden, both of which have since sailed from Wilmington 
and arrived with their cargoes at foreign ports. I cite these only 
as the latest authenticated instances. And as another fact, it is 
offtcially reported by the Collector at Charleston that the revenue 
accruing at that port from duties on imported merchandise dur- 
ing the past year under the blockade was more than double the 
receipt of any one year previous to the separation of the States ; 



400 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



and this, although the duties under the Confederate Govern- 
ment are much lower than those exacted by the United States. 

" As regards other portions of your Lordship's letter, I 
may freely admit, as it is there stated, that a blockade would be 
in legal existence although a sudden storm or change of wind 
occasionally might blow ofY the blockading squadron; yet, with 
entire respect, I do not see how such principle affects the ques- 
tion of the efficiency of such blockade whilst the squadron is on 
the coast. And again, whilst I am not informed whether a 
defense resting on the inadequacy of the blockading force has 
been urged in cases of capture before the Prize Courts in America, 
I can well see how futile such defense would be, when presented 
on behalf' of a neutral ship whose Government had not only not 
objected to, but admitted the efficiency of the blockade. 
" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J. M. MASON, 

" Special Commissioner of the Confederate States of America." 



" Earl Russell to Mr. Mason: 

" Foreign Office, February 19, 1863. 
"Sir: With reference to my letter of the i6th instant, 
acknowledging your letter of that day, calling attention to the 
accounts that had reached this country, tending to show that the 
blockade of the ports of Galveston and Charleston had been put 
an end to by the action of the Confederate Naval forces, I have 
the honor now to state to you that the information that Her 
Majesty's Government has derived from your letter, and from the 
public journals on this subject, is not sufficiently accurate to 
admit of their forming an opinion, and they wish, accordinp.Iy, 
by the first opportunity, to instruct Lord Lyons to report fully 
on the matter. 

" When his Lordship's report has been received and con- 
sidered, I shall have the honor of making a further communi- 
cation to you on the subject. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

" RUSSELL. 
" /. M. Mason, Esqr." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



401 



In dispatch No. 32, dated March 30th, he says : " In my 
dispatch of the 19th instant, I spoke of the brilHant success of 
the Confederate loan, then first upon the market. I have now the 
satisfaction, ten days having expired since the books were 
closed, and three days since the allotment to subscribers, of con- 
firming that success. The books were open only from Thursday 
to Saturday at 2 p. m. (say two days and a half), and the sub- 
scription reached nearly sixteen millions. As was to be expected, 
the premium attained in the first excitement of speculation, 
when it reached five and a quarter per cent., has since fluctuated. 
It closed firmly on Saturday (day before yesterday), at from one 
and three-fourths to two per cent. I have just had an interview 
with Mr. Erlanger, who was accompanied by Mr. Schroder, the 
principal banker in London managing the loan. They assure 
me that since the allotment, when the stock came into the pos- 
session of holders, prices have settled down so firmly at present 
rates, and with such indication of strength, that there is little fear 
of its falling lower, and none that it will touch par. They say 
that such entire confidence is felt and evinced by holders in 
the security that they have no fear. 

" They tell me, further, that subscriptions come direct from 
Russia, and from cotton spinners ; also from Switzerland, from 
the free cities of Bremen, Hamburg and Frankfort, and even 
from Trieste. They say, also, as evidence of the strength of this 
loan, compared with others contemporaneously put upon the 
market, namely, one for Denmark offered at ninety, that at first 
it attained a premium of two per cent., and then fell to one-half 
discount, or below par; and one of the Italian States, offered at 
seventy-nine, was not all taken, and fell immediately one-half 
per cent, discount, though both these loans were brought for- 
ward by the Rothschilds. 

" I think I may congratulate you, therefore, on the triumph- 
ant success of our infant credit — it shows, malgre all detrac- 
tion and calumny, that cotton is king at last." 

" J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner 
Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Department of State, 

" Richmond, May 13th, 1863. 
" Sir : I have the honor herewith to transmit a correct 



402 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



design of the Confederate flag made at the Engineer's Bureau, 
and a copy of the act of Congress by which it was estabhshed. 
" Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN." 

Act of Congress Adopting the Flag. 

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, 
" That the flag of the Confederate States shall be as follows : 
The field to be white, the length double the width of the flag, 
with the union (now used as the battle flag) to be of a square 
of two-thirds the width of the flag, having the ground red, thereon 
a broad saltier of blue, bordered with white, and emblazoned with 
mullets or five pointed stars, corresponding in number to that 
of the Confederate States." 

" Department of State, 

" Richmond, May 30th, 1863. 

" /. M. Mason, Esqr. 

" Sir : Since my No. 22, of 13th instant, I have received 
your No. 33, of 9th instant. Nos. 28, 30, 31, and 32 are still 
missing. 

" I am happy to inform you of the full approbation accorded 
by the President to j^our action in the matter of the loan as ex- 
plained in that dispatch. 

" I have, through Mr. Hotze, received several copies of the 
'Blue-Book ' containing your correspondence with Earl Russell 
on the subject of the blockade, and have some comments to make, 
and some further evidence to be placed before his Lordship, in- 
cluding extracts from his own correspondence, which fully cor- 
roborate our assertion that the blockade is ineffective and is re- 
spected by the British Government on grounds entirely independ- 
ent of the intrinsic merits of the question. But I defer further 
remarks till I have received your dispatch covering the corre- 
spondence, as it may contain matter which would affect our action 
on the subject. 

" Congress has passed a law estabHshing a Seal for the Con- 
federate States. I have concluded to get the work executed in 
England and request you will do me the favor to supervise it. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



403 



You will receive herewith a copy of the act of Congress describ- 
ing the Seal, and a photographic view of the Statue of Washing- 
ton. 

" The photograph represents the horse as standing on the 
base of a statue, but in the Seal the base ought to be the earth, 
as the representation is to be of a horseman, and not of a statue. 
The size desired for the Seal is the circle on the back of the pho- 
tograph. The outer margin will give space for the words : ' The 
Confederate States of America, 22d February, 1862.' I do not 
think it necessary that the date should be expressed in words, 
the figures 22, 1862, being a sufficient compliance with the re- 
quirements of the law. Indeed, I know that in the drawing sub- 
mitted to the committee that devised the Seal, the date was in 
figures and not in words. There is not room for the date in 
words on the circumference of the Seal, without reducing the 
size of the letters so much as to injure the effect. 

" In regard to the wreath and the motto, they must be placed 
as vour taste and that of the artist shall suggest, but it is not 
deemed imperative, under the words of the act, that all the agri- 
cultural products (cotton, tobacco, sugar-cane, corn, wheat, and 
rice) should find place in the wreath. They are stated rather as 
examples. I am inclined to think that in so small a space as 
the wreath must necessarily occupy it will be impossible to include 
all these produtcs with good eflfect, and in that event, I would 
suggest that cotton, rice, and tobacco, being distinctive products 
of the Southern, Middle, and Northern States of the Confed- 
eracy, ought to be retained, while wheat and corn, being produced 
in equal abundance in the United States as in the Confederacy, 
and therefore less distinctive than the other products named, 
may better be omitted, if omission is found necessary. It is not 
desired that this work be executed by any but the best artist that 
can be found, and the difference of expense between a poor and a 
fine specimen of the engraving is too small a matter to be taken 
into consideration in a work that we fondly hope will be re- 
quired for generations yet unborn. 

" Pray give your best attention to this, and let me know 
about what the cost will be and when I may expect the work to be 
finished. I am happy to apprise you that the information from 
all parts of the Confederacy is most encouraging as regards the 



404 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



growing crops. In the more southern portions of our country 
they are just beginning to gather the wheat harvest, and no com- 
plaint is heard from any part of the country of rust or other 
injury. The production of wheat and other small grain will be 
very large this year, while that of corn will be enormous, prob- 
ably enough for two years' consumption, unless some very un- 
expected and unusual calamity shall occur. Our enemies must 
find some other instrumentality than starvation before they suc- 
ceed in breaking the proud spirit of this noble people. How it 
makes one's heart swell with emotion to witness the calm, heroic, 
unconquerable determination to be free, that fills the breast of 
all ages, sexes and conditions. What effect may be produced 
in Europe by the repulse at Charleston and the defeat of Hooker 
is not now even the subject of speculation among the people. It 
is the evident purpose of foreign governments to accord or refuse 
recognition according to the dictates of their own interests or 
fears, without the slightest reference to right or justice, and we 
have thus learned, at heavy cost, a lesson that will, I trust, remain 
profitable to our statesmen in all future time. We have now, by 
our system of taxation, so arranged our finances as to be entirely 
confident of the ability to resist for an indefinite period the 
execrable savages who are now murdering and plundering our 
people, and no prospect of peace is perceptible from any other 
source than the growing conviction among all classes in the 
United States that they are waging a war as ruinous in the pres- 
ent as it is hopeless for the future. 
" I am very respectfully 

" Your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN." 

Mr. Mason's dispatch No. 34, of April 27th, 1863, said: 
" There is a very disturbed feeling in all circles here, arising 
out of the aspect of afifairs between the United States and this 
country — men's minds are highly incensed at the arrogant and 
exacting tone of expression found in the public speeches and in 
the press of the Northern States, and a strong opinion prevails 
that it will be difTficult to avoid drifting into the war which the 
Lincoln Government and its advisers seem determined to 
provoke. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^05 

" The recent debates in Parliament have this good effect, at 
least, they keep up agitation on American affairs ; and although 
no vote is taken, it is perfectly understood in the House of Com- 
mons, that the war, professedly waged to restore the Union, is 
hopeless ; and the sympathies of four-fifths of its members are 
with the South. Considering our experience of this Government 
on the question of recognition, it would be dangerous to venture 
a prediction, but many think here that the Government may 
adopt it, thereby expecting to avert the threatened war by 
assuming a bolder front. It is thought that Seward's policy is 
to provoke hostilities on the part of England, to which this 
would be a counter-move. I give you this as among the specula- 
tions of the times. 

" I have received within a few days your duplicate copies of 
Circulars to Consuls, copy of correspondence with the British . 
Consul at Richmond concerning the conscription of British sub- 
jects, and a copy of the communication and your reply thereto, 
relating to the jurisdiction of the alleged murder on board the 
' Sumter ' at Gibraltar. The voluntary admission of the British 
Government that the jurisdiction lies with us is so far satisfactory. 
I have sent a copy of the correspondence to Mr. Slidell." 

In a dispatch, No. 36, of May nth, Mr. Mason wrote: 
" The Confederate loan seems to have dropped somewhat under 
the last intelligence that ships of the enemy had succeeded in 
running past Vicksburg ; at least, such was the reason assigned in 
the stock market. It closed, at last report, at par." 

The dispatch of May i6th said : " Mr. McCrae, to whom 
has been committed the management of the loan, has at last 
arrived, but proceeded, at once, from Southampton to Paris, 
without passing through London. I have, therefore, not seen 
him. His presence I think all-important in the present posture 
of the loan, the condition of which is far different from that we 
had reason to anticipate from its apparent great success when 
first brought out, as stated to you in my last unofficial note sent 
in duplicate. 

" Our latest intelligence, via New York, two days ago, brings 
information of the movement of Hooker's army across the 
Rappahannock, and dated the 2d of May; but nothing more is 
stated than that the enemy crossed, both above and below Fred- 



4o6 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



ericksburg, putting their columns some twenty or thirty miles 
apart ; but the New York papers say that the press is forbidden 
to give any details. Thus we are left to anticipate results, as far 
as we can, by reasoning from the past to the future. I do not 
doubt what those results will be, and hope we will have them by 
the steamer to-morrow. The tone of the press here is confident 
of our success in the impending battle, and in which, so far as 
I can reason, I fully participate. Amongst other good efifects 
on this side, it will make our loan buoyant. 

" This dispatch is intended to go by a special messenger, 
to be sent by Captain Maury. 

" The delays of London tradesmen have prevented me from 
yet completing your order for books, but I hope now to get 
them ofif to Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm and Company, at Liver- 
pool, in a very few days. I can pay for them, as I suggested in 
my last, out of the Contingent Fund, sending a proper voucher 
for adjustment of the expenditure. ********* 
" I have the honor to be^ etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

The following extracts are culled from the various letters 
written at intervals between March 20 and May 12, 1863 : 

" Tell *Nanny she has indeed made large contributions of 
sons to the cause, and they have done nobly, as I hear by 
occasional accounts — her son Fitzhugh has fairly won his spurs, 
and gracefully has he worn them. Boy though he is, his name 
and his feats are familiar in European circles. * * * * 

" I am rendering, I know, and am made to feel every day, 
valuable service to the country in my position here, but I have 
many yearnings for our dear old home and all the associations 
connected with it. When our country is recognized, I suppose 
it will be necessary for me to remain here for a time to put the 
machinery in order for the proper establishment of international 
relations — but I am longing for the time to arrive when you and 
the girls can join me. You and they will like London, for a 
while, at least — it will be new, or rather it will be the newest 
thing in its appointments and wonderful proportions, that the 

* His sister, Mrs. S. S. Lee, mother of General Fitzhugh Lee, who had 
five sons in the service of the Confederate States. 



LIFE OP JAMES MURRAY MASON. .gy 

mind has ever conceived, certainly if it strikes you as it does me. 
I have been here now for more than a year to study and under- 
stand it, and yet every day am the more convinced that I know 
but little of it. The truth is, I am very much occupied, and well 
for me it is so. I breakfast between nine and ten, and dine at six, 
and consider myself fortunate if I can get an hour or hour and a 
half after four for exercise. The famous Hyde Park is very near, 
and I ramble in that. Beside the advantage of open space and free 
air, I get away from the eternal and stunning noise of the car- 
riages on the streets. Still, I am buoyant, cheerful, and never 
in better health; really the wonderful success attending our 
arms, achieved as they are by the gallantry, courage, and loyalty 
of our troops would find me a truant to home if I could be 
otherwise. * * * You will be satisfied with my asso- 
ciation when I tell you that I breakfasted yesterday with the 
Dean of Westminster Abbey, and am to dine on Monday with 
the Lord Bishop of Exeter." 

A later letter says : " We have, from New York to-day, 
fragmentary and most unsatisfactory accounts of the advance of 
Hooker's army across the Rappahannock, with exulting notes 
from the enemy, heralding, as usual, an anticipated victory. It 
will be four days before we get further accounts through the 
same mendacious sources — tantalizing and irritating enough, yet 
here, at this distance, and in the absence of attending circum- 
stances, I remain calm and coniident, but you can imagine what 
it is to be so far distant, with so much at stake. * * * 

" I observe from the Southern papers which occasionally 
reach me, no little impatience and indignation at the obstinate 
refusal of England to recognize our independence. It would be 
remarkable, indeed, had our people other than such feelings, 
and I share it to the utmost, yet the Government here remains 
immovable, in great part, I think, to avoid all risk of getting 
into a war, but the anti-slavery feeling of England has much 
to do with it. Thanking her for nothing, I shall be proud and 
exultant when peace comes that we will have worked out our 
own salvation unaided and alone. * * * 

" I had a letter a few weeks ago from your aunt in Baltimore, 
sending one to me from our kind friend Mrs. H. H. Lee, in 
Winchester. It gave a graphic account, but of deep and melan- 



4o8 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



choly interest, of the condition of our valued friends in that quar- 
ter, and of the utter ruin and destruction by the vandals who 
have overrun it, of our own brig-ht and happy home. I mourn 
over it, but not as one without hope — the loss we sustain is as 
nothing, compared with what has been sustained by others in 
conducting the resistance to the war waged against us — and is 
light in the balance compared with what those have suffered 
who remained at home and have borne, without change of front, 
the contumely and cruelties of the brutes of the Yankee army. 
I feel a debt, almost of personal obligation, when I call to mind 
what those valued friends have endured, and are yet enduring, 
in the face of a vindictive enemy, without blenching or giving in. 
When you have opportunity of communicating with them, pray 
express for me what I have written. * * * 

" I am gratified indeed to find from your letter that your 
good mother is carrying into successful execution her plan of 
establishing her own household, and you will have the merit 
and consolation, chiefly of building it up by your late raid into 
the enemy's neighborhood, collecting the debris of our late home. 
In my late letters I have told your mother how much I approve 
her plan. You must omit nothing, as the architect in charge, 
to make her comfortable. 

" I have no idea how your letter came ; it was post- 
marked London, but it was very welcome, and was only one 
month on the way. I read it to Sir Henry and Lady Holland 
with their daughters ; they were deeply impressed by its simple, 
but to them wonderful, narrative. Were it not that I am con- 
stantly and engrossingly occupied by matters pertaining to the 
duties of my mission, I should feel very tired of my exile life ; as 
it is, I really have no time to brood over it, and thus fortunately 
feel the less that depression which would attend my position. 

"May I2th — * * * * ^^1- jj. jg y^jj^ ^^ repine; 
whether patriotic or no, I sometimes think that my first wish is, 
as the fruits of recognition, that it may bring you and the girls 
to England. On the prospects here, we can only speculate ; the 
hard teachings of experience satisfy me that we have nothing to 
look to from the European powers. We must work out our own 
salvation, and perhaps it is better that it should be so ; we shall 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. .^g 



then stand beside them as a peer, without obligation, and with as 
much right to dictate as they. 

" Of Hfe in London, unless I were to write a great deal, I 
could tell but little. I have abundant occupation in duties inci- 
dent to my position. The Government has necessarily many 
and large operations here, which, in the difficult and interrupted 
communication between the two countries, involve large responsi- 
biHties in the exercise of a discreet judgment — this, through the 
agency employed, pretty much devolves on me, and, as you may 
imagine, carries with it constantly recurring and engrossing 
cares ; still, I feel that I successfully meet them, and am able, in 
the absence of instructions, to render valuable and important 
service, and that is compensation enough. * * * 

" The suffering and distress caused by the war are always 
before me, and although I am fully aware that I am rendering 
better service to our country here than I could do at home, yet 
absence at such a time is hard to bear. I hope you will send 
me a copy of so much of Mrs. Lee's journal as refers to the 
actual events of the war occurring at Winchester. 

" Our great and heroic people would seem to have nothing 
left but to work out their own salvation, and nobly will they do 
it. England, I am satisfied, will remain passive. What France 
may do, or be compelled to do, because of her complications 
with Mexico, is yet a problem ; something may come of that. 
At this season of the year all in political or social positions are 
out of London at their homes in the country, and I availed myself 
of the stagnation to pay a visit, to Lord and Lady Donough- 
more, at their seat in Tipperary County in Ireland, at their kind 
invitation ; most agreeable, excellent and hospitable people. I 
remained with them more than a week, and enjoyed the country 
life not a little, then went to the Lakes of Killarney, spent a day 
or two in Dublin, and got back to London yesterday, after a 
fortnight's absence, very much refreshed." 

" Paris, June 14th, 1863. 
" My Very Dear Wife: I came here a few days ago, at the 
invitation of Mr. Slidell, to confer about matters abroad, of in- 
terest to our country. This is my second visit to France, the first 
one some twelve months since, and it improves on acquaintance ; 



^jQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



a great deal to be seen, but I am not alert at sight-seeing. The 
climate, as compared with England, its great attraction, and 
then, too, there is here quite a large circle of Confederates, 
emigrants chiefly from New Orleans and Maryland. Our great 
friend, Frank Corbin, has been as kind and liberal in his hospi- 
talities as possible. He went with me to-day to Versailles, where 
we spent the day, marveling at the splendor and extravagance of 
the old regime. The palace, capacious enough, it is said, to 
receive within its walls all the other palaces of Europe ; and three 
miles of picture galleries by the best artists of any age. I was 
at the races on Sunday (the great French Derby), always fixed 
for Sunday, and had a full opportunity of scanning and studying 
that marvelous man, the Emperor, for a full hour, and within a 
few feet. He had a small court circle around him in an open box. 
There was nothing of that grave, almost stolid, expression, which 
his portraits give him ; on the contrary, his deportment, although 
always dignified, was of an easy and almost jaunty air, and the 
general expression of countenance afifable and full of bonhomie, 
and such, it is said, is his real character. 

" Nothing new in the aspect of our afifairs, either here or in 
England, and no clue to divine whether either Government is 
disposed to recognize us. My position as an unaccredited 
diplomat is far from agreeable, but I am conscious, nevertheless, 
that, as the representative of the Government, my presence in 
England is of great value to our country, and so I put up with 
it. I must close, as a dispatch is yet to be written. 
" With best love to all, 

" Yours, my dear wife, ever, 

"J. M. MASON." 

" CONf-EDERATE StATES 

" Navy Department, 

" Richmond, February 22d, 1.863. 
" Hon. jf antes M. Mason, 

" Commissioner of Confederate States: 

" Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
your dispatch of the nth of December, 1862, enclosing the report 
of Lieutenant Chapman, Confederate States Navy, of the loth 
November, 1862, in relation to the unfortunate occurrence on 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^jj 



board the ' Sumter.' Your course with regard to that vessel is 
approved by this Department, and you have its thanks for your 
prompt attention. 

" I am respectfully your obedient servant, /P 

" S.XvMALLORY,_^ 
" Secretary of the Navy." 

"Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to Hon. J. M. Mason, 
Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Sir : The delay in the steamer's departure enables me to 
address you on a subject which attracts the earnest attention of 
this Government. 

" By the last European and Northern mails, we are in- 
formed that extensive enlistments are now in progress in Ireland 
of recruits for the armies of the United States. It is, of course, 
impossible for us here to be as well informed on this subject as 
you must be in London, but there seems to be an absence of all 
disguise in the public journals, and no intimation is given of any 
effort on the part of Her Majesty's Government to arrest so 
flagrant a breach of the neutrality which has been announced as 
the fixed policy of Great Britain. It is assumed, however, that 
so grave a matter can not have escaped your attention and that 
you have not failed both to procure the necessary evidence to 
establish the facts and to place that evidence, with proper repre- 
sentations, in possession of Earl Russell. 

" It is not necessary to refer to the memorable conduct of 
the United States during the Crimean war, nor to the harsh and 
peremptory manner in which it asserted its rights to prevent for- 
eign enlistment on its territory, in order to justify your repre- 
sentations on the present occasion. 

" The President is persuaded that no citation of precedent is 
required to induce Her Majesty's Government to give effect to 
Her Majesty's proclamation of neutrality, and to arrest the law- 
less attempts of the official agents of the United States to effect 
designs violative of the territorial sovereignty of the British 
Queen and, manifestly, hostile to this Confederacy. In the 
expectation that you have been able to obtain satisfactory evi- 
dence, and with full confidence that on a simple communication 
of the facts on which our complaint is grounded. Her Majesty's 



412 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Government will take measures to prevent the commission of 
acts subversive both of the municipal law of Great Britain and 
of international obligations, you are instructed, if you have not 
previously done so, to bring this matter to the attention of Earl 
Russell. 

" I am, sir, respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN, 

" Secretary of State." 

Dispatch No. 38. 

" Paris, 4th June, 1863. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I came here a few days ago, at the suggestion of 
Mr. SHdell, to confer with Col. Lamar and himself upon matters 
pending, connected with our naval service, of the character of 
which you are aware, and to which you called my attention in 
a late dispatch, at the instance of the Secretary of the Navy. 
From locality, these arrangements being more particularly under 
the cognizance of Mr. Slidell, he will doubtless advise you of our 
success so far as things have advanced. 

" General McCrea also, who is here, derived the benefit of 
our joint counsels in matters pertaining to the disposition of the 
avails of the loan, so far as they have been received, it being in- 
dispensable as well to the public service as to the credit of the 
Government that money should be supplied to its officers and 
agents here, whilst no warrants from the Treasury formally 
authorizing disbursements have yet been received by General 
McCrae. He will, of course, report to the Secretary of the 
Treasury what may be done in this regard. 

" A note from Mr. Macfarland, dated at London on the 
I St instant, informs me that on that day dispatches had arrived 
for Mr. Slidell, Colonel Lamar and myself ; that he opened mine. 
The only extract that he gives me from it is that in which you 
refer, and call my attention, to the alleged enlistment of recruits 
in Ireland for the Federal Army. You are right in supposing 
that this matter had not escaped my observation. The informa- 
tion, as it reached me, was that extensive shipments were made 
from time to time, from Liverpool, of Irishmen whose passages 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^jj 

were paid, and who, it was said, had received small bounties in 
advance, with other circumstances tending to show that they 
were intended for military service in America, although the 
engagement entered into was to work on railroads or in some 
other evasive form. I took the only measure in my power to 
uncover the real purpose of this emigration, by authorizing a 
gentleman of Liverpool, entirely to be trusted, to employ such 
agents or detectives there fit for such service, to procure the 
proper evidence, stipulating to pay them such compensation as 
he might promise. His last report was that he had such men 
at work, but so far they had been unable to make any discov- 
eries clear enough to found a representation to the Government. 
Of course, every precaution is taken by the Federal agents in 
England and Ireland to conceal the real design of the enlistments, 
and it will probably be no easy matter to make a case for the 
Government to interpose; still, I beg you to be assured that it 
shall be diligently followed up in such manner as shall best 
promise success. I do not personally know the gentleman to 
whom you recently sent a communication, through me, as com- 
mercial agent at Cork, or of his fitness for his duty, but as your 
letter imported that he had the full confidence of the Depart- 
ment, I shall communicate with him immediately on my return to 
London, to set on foot, if he can, the proper inquiries in Ireland. 

" I observe that the subject of these alleged enlistments in 
Ireland was brought before the House of Commons, I think on 
Monday last, by a question to Lord Palmerston whether they 
were being made, and whether any steps had been taken by the 
Government to prevent them. The reply of Lord Palmerston 
was that these alleged enlistments had been brought to the notice 
of the Government, and that inquiries in the proper quarter had 
been promptly instituted and should be diligently prosecuted to 
ascertain the truth, and if true, proper measures would be taken 
to punish the parties implicated. 

" Mr. Adams has so tormented the Minister with charges 
of alleged violations of the Foreign Enlistment Act by those in 
the interest of the Confederates that I think the latter will be 
even alert to establish like charges against Federal agents. 

"A few days before I left England, I spent a part of a day 
and a night with Mr. Roebuck and Mr. Lindsay, at the residence 



^j^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

of the latter gentleman, near London. The visit was projected 
by Mr. L. to talk over the expediency of bringing the subject 
of recognition before the House of Commons. Both of these 
gentlemen seemed to think the time might now be opportune for 
introducing it, but that it would not be advisable to do it without 
previous consultation with some of the leaders of the Opposition. 
Since I came here, and within a few days past, I find that Mr. 
Roebuck has given notice in the House that he intended, at some 
future day, to propose that Her Majesty be requested to enter 
into negotiations with the principal powers of Europe, with a 
view to recognize the independence of the Confederate States ; 
and in a note from Mr. Lindsay, addressed to me here, he in- 
forms me that before Mr. Roebuck gave the notice, he had a 
long conversation with Mr. Disraeli. Mr. Lindsay's note was 
brief and he did not give the tenor of that conversation, though 
his language would seem to imply that the notice was made to 
follow it. I think there are evidences, too, of a strong disposi- 
tion to agitate the question of recognition by our friends at popu- 
lar meetings got up for the purpose. I enclose a report of one, 
under the auspices of Mr. Roebuck, composed of his constituents 
at Sheffield, after our conference at Lindsay's, and before his 
notice in Parliament. Yet, after our experience of the impassive 
condition of the British Government, and the inertia of the Oppo- 
sition, I can not say I am hopeful of results. 

" Absent from the office of the Commission, I can not affix 
the appropriate number of this dispatch, but will have it done 
when I get to London, and must ask that you will so order it 
at Richmond. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 

Dispatch No. 39. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, June 12th, 1863. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : As I told you in my No. 38, immediately on my 
return from Paris, I wrote to Mr. Dowling at Cork, with full 
instructions to collect evidence, if practicable, in regard to the 
supposed Federal enlistments in Ireland. Should it be obtained. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



415 



the subject shall be, as you direct, brought before Earl Russell. 

" From your No. 20, of the 14th of April, I find that my 
dispatches sent by Mr. Hape, had been destroyed. I have not the 
means here of determining what dispatches were committed to 
him, but presume they were those of which duplicates were sent 
with my No. 31, of the 19th of March. 

" I learn also, within a few days past, that triplicates of my 
Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, which were sent by Mr. Mohl in the 
' Peterhoff' have also been destroyed at sea — these were of dis- 
patches of which you informed me neither originals nor dupli- 
cates had been received, and were necessary to complete your 
files. I have also just learned, through the Northern papers, 
that a Mr. Hobson, of Richmond, who sailed from here in the 
Havana mail steamer early in April, and who bore my dispatches 
No. 30 to 33 inclusive, had been captured, I presume, between 
one of the islands and the coast. This gentleman was strongly 
impressed by me with the necessity of destroying these dis- 
patches in the event which has happened and, I doubt not, did so. 

" I have nothing to add on public matters since my No. 38, 
from Paris. We are all in much doubt of the result of things 
at Vicksburg. The latest accounts were that the enemy, in large 
forces, had been repulsed in successive assaults on the entrench- 
ments at the city, up to the 22d of May. Should the defence 
be successful, I think Mr. Roebuck's motion, now fixed for the 
30th, may be carried ; if otherwise, I should not advise its being 
put to a vote. 

" I completed the purchase of the books you have ordered 
for the Department of State yesterday, and they will go oflf to- 
day or to-morrow, to the house of Frazer, Trenholm and Com- 
pany, of Liverpool, as you direct. The bill shall be sent with 
the next dispatch. 

" The Confederate loan seems solidly placed at last ; the 
quotations for the past week have varied only from one to two 
per cent, discount. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 



4i6 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commissioner 
Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Department of State, 
" Richmond, 6th July, 1863. 

" Sir : Your No. 36, of nth of May, was received on 30th 
ultimo, and on the 4th instant I received your dispatch from Paris, 
not numbered, bearing date the 4th June. This last is the 
quickest communication yet had with you. 

" I note what you state in relation to the recruiting by the 
enemy in Ireland. While it is satisfactory to know that you are 
diligent in the matter, we have determined to send two or three 
Irishmen, long residents of our country, to act as far as they 
can in arresting these unlawful acts of the enemy, by commu- 
nicating directly with the people and spreading among them such 
information and intelligence as may be best adapted to persuade 
them of the folly and wickedness of volunteering their aid in the 
savage warfare waged against us. I enclose you copy of the 
instructions to one of them, that you may be fully possessed of 
our motives and purposes. 

" I have no special news for you. The details of the army 
operations must now reach you through Northern sources, as 
General Lee is too far removed to enable us to communicate 
freely with him. In Louisiana we have succeeded in wresting 
from the enemy the whole State except in the immediate vicinity 
of New Orleans on the east bank of the river. No fears what- 
ever are entertained of the result at Port Hudson, and our pros- 
pects at Vicksburg are brightening fast, through the operations 
of General Kirby Smith and Richard Taylor in Western 
Louisiana. The President has been seriously ill, but is now fast 
recovering. " I am, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" T. P. BENJAMIN." 

Dispatch No. 40. 
" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, June 20th, 1863. 
" Hon. y. P. Benjam.in, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : An opportunity offering by a good ship direct either 
to Bermuda or Nassau, I avail myself of it for this dispatch, to 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



417 



be addressed, as the case may be, to Major Walker or Mr. 
Hezliger. 

" I send also, herewith, dispatches from Mr. Slidell, 
received for transmission within the past few days. I en- 
closed also, as the latest, a note from him of the i8th instant, 
advising me in brief of his interview on that day with the 
Emperor and the result. I have nothing from him since. I 
sent Mr. Slidell's note to Mr. Lindsay, and he, with Mr. Roebuck, 
called on me this morning. They are both much interested in 
the success of the motion of the latter, to come up in the House 
of Commons on the 30th instant, and go off together to Paris 
to-night to have an interview with the Emperor. At their 
request, I telegraphed Mr. Slidell to arrange for their interview 
to-morrow. They desire to impress on the Emperor : first, the 
importance that he should formally invite England to unite with 
France in an act of recognition — the communication to be made 
before the 30th — with permission to state the fact (if it exists) in 
debate in the House ; secondly, if England should refuse to unite, 
then that the Emperor should act alone, with the assurance from 
them that in such an event England must follow in less than 
one month, or the Ministry would go out, Mr. Roebuck is, 
as you know, a statesman of great intelligence and experience, 
and I should hope good results from the mission. It certainly 
evinces great earnestness on their part. Without news of decided 
successful results at Vicksburg, or some move of the character 
contemplated on the part of the Emperor, I should fear, if put to 
the vote, that Roebuck's motion would fail. 

" I enclose a late debate in the House of Lords between 
Lord Clanricarde and Earl Russell involving questions of the 
blockade. You will see that the latter utterly repudiates the 
definition of the Convention of Paris, or rather, by a quibble on 
its text, which speaks of * access to the coast,' construes the 
meaning to be that the coast and not the port alone, may be the 
subject of a blockade, re-establishing, thus, the doctrine of the 
blockade supposed to have become obsolete, or wholly rejected 
by the Paris Convention. These declarations of Earl Russell go 
a bowshot beyond the very latitudinous views expressed by him 
in his correspondence with me, and, I think, will be a warning 
to us .to avoid the risk of any entanglement in future treaty 
stipulations, when the time comes. 



^l8 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" I send also, as bearing upon the public questions of the 
day, a correspondence between Mr. Moncure D. Conway and 
myself, which I caused to be published in the Times, with a copy 
of the advertisement calling a public meeting in the city of Lon- 
don, under the auspices of Mr. Bright, to enable Mr. Conway 
to deliver an address on slavery. You will see that in the 
advertisement Mr. Conway is announced as from Eastern Vir- 
ginia, and the son of a slave-holder. Who he is I do not know, 
but I thought his proposition to negotiate on terms resting on 
the basis of the independence of the Southern States, under 
authority from Northern Abolitionists, with the declaration that 
they would coerce their Government to stop the war and admit 
our independence, afforded an opportunity to expose the duplicity 
of that party to their own people not to be omitted. The fact 
that Mr. Bright was to preside at the meeting gave him and his 
mission, I thought, sufficient consequence to excuse me for enter- 
taining the correspondence. I am glad to find that what I have 
done meets the approval of our friends here, and I think may 
do service at the North. 

" I enclose, also, copy of the bill for the books ordered for 
the State Department. They have been paid for out of the Con- 
tingent Fund. In my No. 34, I stated that a copy of ' Han- 
sard's ' complete (the cost of which you inquired) could be 
obtained in good half-binding at £10^, the cost price, as stated 
by the bookseller, being originally £^00. The box of books 
was sent to Liverpool on the i8th instant. 

" Within the last two or three months organizations call- 
ing themselves ' Southern Clubs ' have made their appearance at 
Manchester, Birmingham, and other large towns, and under the 
auspices of respectable and influential men. These movements 
have been spontaneous and without instigation from Southern 
quarters, so far as I know. Their objects are, by public addresses, 
publication, etc., to get up a spirit of inquiry amongst the peo- 
ple at large, and to diffuse information on the Southern side of 
the American question. They are in frequent communication 
with me for facts and in search of material. Of course, I do all in 
my power to encourage them. Under their auspices, too, public 
meetings have been held in the towns and villages, principally in 
the manufacturing districts, which are addressed by speakers in- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



419 



vited for the occasion, and resolutions are adopted expressive of 
the sense of the meeting in favor of recognition, etc. Although 
rather voluminous, yet there being room in the dispatch-box, I 
send some of the placards which have been sent to me, to show 
the character of the movement, its * forms and pressure.' 
' " I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 

( 

Interview with the Emperor held by Messrs. Roebuck 
AND Lindsay in Regard to Recognition. 

{Copied from Account Written by Mr. Lindsay) 

"Sunday, June 21st — Arrived in Paris at 7 a. m. ; learned 
what had taken place up to that time and left for Fontainebleau, 
where we arrived at 6 p. m. As the Emperor had been good 
enough to say that whenever I wished to see him I had merely 
to express my wishes in a note to himself — a liberty I would not 
under ordinary circumstances have taken, but as this matter was 
urgent, I did not hesitate to address the Emperor direct, sending 
my note, however, in an open envelope through M. Mocquard. 
I had an immediate answer, saying that the Emperor would be 
glad to see us on the following morning at ten-thirty. 

" Monday, 22d June — At the time named, we proceeded to 
the palace. The Emperor at once received us, and though he 
has always, so far as I am competent to judge, been pleased to 
receive me very graciously, I think this morning he was even 
more so than usual. He met us at the door of his study, shak- 
ing hands with me and bowing to Mr. Roebuck as if he was grati- 
fied to make his personal acquaintance, and asked us to be seated, 
intimating that he would be glad if we went fully into the ques- 
tion of recognition, and that, so far as he was concerned, he 
considered our meeting not a mere matter of form, but one of 
grave importance. I felt it to be so, and so did Mr. Roebuck, 
and we were too earnest to waste either the Emperor's time or 
our own with formal speeches. He saw that, and I believe felt 
as we did. 

" As the Emperor had been pleased on various occasions 
during the last eighteen months to open his mind freely to me on 
many questions relating to the lamentable war, such as the block- 



420 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



ade, the state of our working classes, the views of the commer- 
cial classes of the United States, etc., and as we, on all the main 
features of this unhappy struggle and its results, seemed to agree, 
I considered it quite unnecessary to go into any details as to the 
causes of the war, or the slight efifect which, in my judgment, the 
institution of slavery had especially upon its origin or its prolon- 
gation. Knowing that he held somewhat similar views, it would 
have been a mere waste of His Majesty's time to tell him what we 
knew, or to reason what we agreed upon ; therefore I went at once 
to the question of recognition by saying that I was glad to learn 
that His Majesty's views had not been changed in regard to the 
claims of the South to be recognized as an independent nation. 
I then stated that Mr. Roebuck and I had no personal interests 
to serve. We appeared before him as two of the representatives 
of the people, different in many respects, but as one on the desira- 
bility of recognition, to state our views in regard to it and to ask, 
I might say to implore. His Majesty to adopt any means short 
of war to put an end to the terrible and vain struggle now raging 
in America, in which both the people of France and Great Britain 
were so deeply interested. I told him that, so far as I could 
ascertain, the feelings of the people, and especially the views of 
the mercantile community, though I had no authority to speak 
for either, they were now, I thought, of the opinion that the North 
and the South would not be able to settle their differences among 
themselves, and that very many members of the House of Com- 
mons appeared to be also of that opinion, but that the majority 
seemed afraid of responsibility and wished the question to be left 
with the Executive, but that the Executive with us seemed also 
to be afraid of responsibility, and thus thousands upon thousands 
of lives were sacrificed and a fearful amount of misery inflicted 
upon the human race because nobody would act, and that we 
sincerely hoped that His Majesty would make an urgent appeal 
to the English Government to take any means short of war to 
stop the carnage. I ventured also to remark that, if the English 
Government refused to act with him, I was confident that if His 
Majesty would alone pronounce the word recognition, peace 
would be restored. That word, I now said, would be the har- 
binger of peace, and I devoutly hoped he would pronounce it. I 
further ventured to remark that if he would state he had re- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^21 

solved to recognize the South as a nation for the reasons he had 
oreviously named to me, I did not think any Ministry in England 
Vvould or could stand which did not agree to join him in recog- 
nition after all that had taken place. I then referred to Mr. 
Roebuck's motion, which stood for the 30th. 

" These remarks, of which I have given merely substance, 
were made in the way of conversation, and during the course of 
them the Emperor freely offered his own opinions, to which I 
shall refer hereafter. Mr. Roebuck then begged His Majesty to 
understand that in what he was about to say he should speak as 
an Englishman, but that he believed in this matter he could point 
out a line of conduct that would conciliate the interests of France 
and England. His Majesty here interrupted him by saying that 
he was quite aware that such would be the case, and thought that 
Mr. Roebuck was right in so acting. Mr. Roebuck then said 
that his ultimate object was the immediate recognition of the 
Southern States of North America ; that to this end he put upon 
the books of the House of Commons a notice of motion as a 
means, and that in order to enable him to carry that motion, 
he asked His Majesty for aid — he begged to be permitted to 
submit to His Majesty a line of conduct. The first that he would 
submit was that which he believed the most advantageous to 
England, but if that should prove impossible, he would submit 
a second, less advantageous to England, but far more advanta- 
geous to France. He acknowledged to the Emperor that he 
would far rather that His Majesty would adopt the first than 
the second, but, he preferred his adopting the second to our 
remaining as we are at present. The first course, then, was 
that His Majesty would make a formal proposition to England 
to join him in recognizing the South — the second, if he found 
the first impossible, or if England declined to act, was that the 
Emperor should himself, and if necessary alone, make the recog- 
nition. 

" Mr. Roebuck then entered into a full statement of the rea- 
sons which he thought should induce the Emperor to adopt 
either one course or the other. At the present moment, he said, 
a boon was offered to Europe such as had never been known 
in the history of Europe, or indeed in the history of the world. 
At this time 10,000,000 civilized men, producing three of the first 



^22 ^^^^ Oi^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

necessaries of European life, cotton, sugar, and tobacco, were 
suddenly compelled to look for a new customer, to change, in 
fact, their whole commercial relations. That up to the time of 
secession the whole commercial business of the South had been 
transacted by the North. In 1861, the United States had begun 
their system of protection — that by this system the North had 
compelled the South to grant to the North a monopoly which 
was to the North a source of unexampled wealth, which, if it 
had continued, would have made New York really the Imperial 
city, and which would have enabled the North to domineer over 
the whole commercial world. This great business was suddenly, 
by the secession, withdrawn from the North and was as suddenly 
ofiFered to Europe. If England had been sagacious enough to 
see her advantage, and had alone recognized the South, she 
would have won for herself the greatest part of this lucrative busi- 
ness and London would have continued the great commercial 
city of the world. If France and England conjointly were to pro- 
ceed to recognition, they would share aUke in the advantage. If 
France were to proceed alone, then to her would fall the greater 
part of this singular benefit. England, it was clear, would not 
act alone — the first course of conduct which he entreated His 
Majesty to adopt, was to propose to England a joint action; 
this failing, he begged him to adopt the second, namely at once 
and by himself to recognize the South. This he knew was the 
conduct most beneficial to France, but he only wished him to 
adopt it if his proposal to England should be impossible or not 
accepted by England. The Emperor was evidently impressed 
with what Mr. Roebuck stated, and turning to me he said : ' You 
know how anxious I have been to maintain friendly relations with 
your country, and to act in concert with your Government in all 
great questions, more especially in regard to the sad state of 
things in the United States — and though I have no reason for 
displaying any unfriendly feeling towards the Government of the 
United States and have no desire whatever to take any measure 
which might even be construed as unfriendly to the Federal Gov- 
ernment, I feel more strongly now than I have ever felt that this 
war in which such vast sacrifices have been made can not restore 
the Union and can only lead to greater sacrifices and entail 
greater misery upon all who are now unhappily engaged in this 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^2 3 



vain and terrible struggle; and therefore I am desirous on 
account of the interests of the North as well as the South that 
the carnage should cease. I believe the recognition of the South 
as an independent nation would restore peace, and therefore I 
am most anxious, in concert with Great Britain, to adopt 
measures for the recognition of a people who have given such 
proofs of their abilities to maintain their independence and to 
govern themselves.' Then, turning towards Mr. Roebuck, he 
said : ' I fear I can not make the formal application to England 
which you wish, and I will tell you why I can not : I have already 
made a formal application to England, and that application was 
immediately transmitted to the United States Government, and I 
can not help feeling that the object of that proceeding was to 
create ill blood between me and the United States. Therefore 
I can not again make a similar application and subject myself 
to the probability of being treated again in the same manner, 
but in addition to having contradicted the rumour which you had 
heard in regard to any change in my views, I have just requested 
Baron Gros to ascertain whether England is prepared to coincide 
with my views in regard to recognition, to suggest any mode for 
proceeding for the recognition of the Southern States which I so 
much desire. 

" ' In reply to the second course named by Mr. Roebuck, I 
fear if I took that measure alone it might in some respects tend 
to prolong the war, embroil me with the North, or it might cause 
the North to declare war against me. I do not want my people 
to be involved in war for very many reasons, and especially in a 
war with America, for such an event might seriously hamper my 
operations in Mexico, and supposing they were to send down 
their iron-clads to Vera Cruz, what would be the result upon my 
fleet? I am indeed most anxious,' His Majesty continued, ' to see 
this war brought to a close, for I dread the consequences of the 
want of cotton to my people during the next winter.' 

" I then remarked, we do not dread it, but we see the con- 
sequences must be great misery amongst our people also, and we 
thought we need not fear any declaration of war on the part of 
the Federal Government in the event of his deciding, for the 
reasons he had named, to recognize the South — but that in the 
event of the Federal Government taking a course so extraordi- 



.2A LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

nary we did not think His Majesty had much to fear from any 
declaration of war by the Federal Government in its present 
state. But, turning to me, he again said, ' In what position 
would I be with my ships, etc., etc., at Vera Cruz? ' 

" I smiled and said that if even one-half of what some people 
in England said was true in regard to the power of his fleet I did 
not think he had much reason to fear the fleet of the Federals — 
that their iron-cased ships were not fitted for operations at any 
distance from their own coast, and that they seemed to have more 
than enough work for them already in blockading the Southern 
ports and in other operations without seriously contemplating, in 
the event of war, an attack upon his fleet at Vera Cruz. The 
New York papers might write about such an attack and even Mr. 
Seward might favor the world with a few more of his threatening 
dispatches, but I thought that Mr. Seward could not seriously 
contemplate any such operation — that so far from the people of 
the United States contemplating, in the event of his recognizing 
the South, any war with France, I was convinced that the people 
of the West would hail that act with delight, and that even the 
thoughtful men of the North (and there were many such) whose 
voices were suppressed by the despotic acts of their Government, 
would thank His Majesty for an act of necessity and mercy, even 
if they did not coincide with His Majesty in the justice of it. 

" I then referred to the great peace demonstration recently 
held at New York and explained that though New York had 
been the * commission city ' of the Southern States, existing to a 
great extent on the trade of the South, and was consequently 
deeply interested in the restoration of the Union ; that even there 
a very large meeting, in that city had recently, in face of the 
frowns and threats of the Federal Government, declared that the 
restoration of the Union appeared to be hopeless and that they 
desired peace. 

" Mr. Roebuck then expressed a fear that we were encroach- 
ing upon His Majesty's time, and rose to leave, but the Emperor 
remarked : * Be seated ; I have more to state and I wish to hear 
more of this important matter.' 

" I then said, as I had always considered my audiences with 
His Majesty to be confidential, did he wish this to be treated in 
a similar manner ? He remarked, ' No, quite the contrary ; I wish 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. .„. 

- 4:^ J 



it to be known that you and Mr. Roebuck have been with me.' 
' And may we,' I said, ' be allowed to state the substance of what 
your Majesty has been pleased to say to us?' 'Not merely the 
substance,' he replied, ' but all that has passed, and to the House 
of Commons, because I appear to have been misunderstood, and I 
also wish the House of Commons to know that in all important 
international questions I desire to act with England, but more 
particularly in all that relates to America.' 

" I then said, in using the word ' misunderstanding,' ' I pre- 
sume your Majesty refers more especially to the answer which 
Lord Palmerston gave to a member of the House of Commons 
last session, when he asked if any communication had been re- 
ceived from your Majesty's Government in regard to American 
afifairs ? ' ' Quite so,' he remarked, ' and I was surprised Lord 
Palmerston gave that answer, for you know, Mr. Lindsay, it was 
not correct.' 

" I then said I had heard that answer and was equally sur- 
prised, ' but your Majesty knows that I have always considered 
anything you were pleased to state to me strictly confidential and 
not to be named except to Lord Cowley, and I did not feel 
myself at liberty to give a denial to that assertion which I could 
have done ; but may I be allowed now to ask if I have your 
Majesty's permission to relate all that occurred between us in 
regard to American affairs?' He replied, 'Certainly, and I am 
glad you have asked permission, as I wish it to be known that 
you have my authority for making these statements.' He then 
asked an opinion in regard to Poland, and offered a few remarks 
concerning the feelings of his people and his own wishes, and at 
parting shook hands with Mr. Roebuck and myself and inquired 
if we proposed to remain over night at Fontainbleau. I said no ; 
that we were leaving at once as I was anxious to be back to 
London. 

" We left Fontainbleau at i p. m. that day, and arrived in 
London on Tuesday the 23d, at 6 a. m., remaining at Paris four 
hours, on the way through, and reporting to Mr. Slidell the 
substance of our conversation with the Emperor." 



426 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Statue of Stonewall Jackson — Dismissal of Both Consql Moore and Mr. 
Cridland — State of Alabama Pays Interest to English Creditors — Prisoner 
Hester — Reverses at Home Affect Loan — Success of Blockade Runners — 
Suggestion that Government Take Exclusive Control of Export of Cotton 
— Recall from London — Private Letter from Mr. Benjamin — Note to Earl 
Russell — Unofficial Letter to Mr. Davis— Earl Russell's Reply to Mr. 
Mason's Note — Appointment of "Commissioner on the Continent" — Let- 
ter to Mrs. Mason. 

Dispatch No. 41. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, July 2d, 1863. 
" Hajt. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Since my last, dated the 20th of June, I have had the 
honor to receive your No. 22 of the 30th of May, with a design 
of the new flag, and a copy of the Act of Congress adopting it. 
The flag has been generally admired, and when the time comes 
authorizing me to raise it, I shall feel great pride in unfurling it 
to England. 

" I shall take very great pleasure in carrying out your in- 
structions to have the work properly executed in London by 
the best artists to be had. 

" A number of gentlemen, in highest social and political 
positions here, have constituted themselves into a committee to 
build a monument to our great soldier, the late Lieutenant- 
General Jackson. The movement has been entirely spontaneous 
and voluntary on their part, and it was only after it had been 
entered upon, that they communicated with me. I enclose, here- 
with, a copy of the circular just issued. Other names have been 
since added to the committee, of the highest nobility. It is 
certainly a graceful and, I hope, a grateful tribute to the memory 
of the illustrious dead, as well as to the country that gave him 
birth, and honored him with its confidence. The subscription, 
I 3oubt not, will be a great success. I have promised these 
gentlemen to obtain for them as exact a likeness as can be had. 
Will you be so obliging as to aid me in this endeavor, and send 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^^7 

it out as soon as practicable? There are some photographs of 
him here, but they do not confirm my recollections of his appear- 
ance. It is desirable, also, that the sculptor should have informa- 
tion as to his height, and the general mould of his form. The 
artist named in the circular, Mr. Foley, is said to be the most 
eminent man in his profession ; and Mr. Beresford Hope, him- 
self a connoisseur in such matters, has advised that I should con- 
sult with Mr. Foley, invoking his professional skill to arrange 
the form of the seal under the provisions of the joint resolution; 
and probably, to select the artist to execute the work. Your in- 
structions in regard to it shall be strictly pursued. 

" I enclose, also, report of the debate from London Times 
on Mr. Roebuck's motion of the 30th of June. Mr. Slidell's 
dispatches which go herewith, communicate to you the result 
of his late interview with the Emperor; and you will see from 
the debate (as reported by Mr. Roebuck), the conversation held 
with that gentleman and Mr. Lindsay by the Emperor. In the 
slip from the Times, also enclosed, you will see the reply made 
by Lord Russell to the inquiry of Lord Stratheden on the same 
night, in the House of Lords. These things put together would 
seem to reduce the professions made by the Emperor to Mr. 
Slidell and to Messrs. R. and L. to a mere shadow. It would 
seem indeed, as if the Emperor held one language to those 
gentlemen, in conversations intended to be made public, but held 
a different language to his Ambassador in London ; and, I add, 
as part of the history of the affair, as reported to me by Mr. Roe- 
buck on the morning of the 30th June, that to enable him to 
speak definitively in the House in regard to the communication 
promised by the Emperor to be made to England through Baron 
Gros, his Ambassador here, that he called on that personage on 
the 29th, and asked him (provided he felt at liberty to give the 
information) to tell him the substance of his communication to 
Earl Russell, and when it had been made ; the reply to which 
was, that he did not feel himself at liberty to give an answer to 
his question ; but he would say, that he had made no formal 
communication to Earl Russell on the subject. The debate was 
adjourned over, and, it is expected, will be resumed to-night. 
Should it be so, I may have it in my power to communicate the 
result of this movement. 



428 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" There appeared in the London papers of this morning, a 
dispatch from you to me dated on the 6th of June, relating to 
the recent dismissal of the British Consul at Richmond. It was 
taken from a recent New York paper, and is stated to have been 
copied from the Richmond Sentinel of the 12th. Its appearance 
here, in this form, was my first acquaintance with it. The dis- 
patch alone is published — the documents to which it refers are 
not included in the publication. I am instructed, in the dispatch, 
to furnish a copy to Earl Russell. My present idea is to send the 
printed copy to his Lordship at once, telling him it shall be fol- 
lowed by a copy of the original when it reaches me. This in^ 
cident may furnish the hint to communicate with me through the 
same channel, whenever it may be desirable to get a dispatch to 
me, without objection to its being equally known to the enemy. 

July 3d. — It has been arranged to resume the debate on 
Roebuck's motion on Monday, the 13th of July, with the assent 
of the Government ; but last night the subject came up again in 
the House, upon an explanation made by Mr. Layard, Under 
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, of which I enclose a report, in a 
slip from the London Times. This gentleman more elaborately 
and pointedly denied the statements of the Emperor, as stated by 
Mr. Roebuck. The matter charged (in so much of it as referred 
to alleged betrayal, by the Government here to that at Washing- 
ton, of communications from France touching American affairs ), 
was erroneously conceived by the Under Secretary. He referred 
it to the late communication from France containing proposals 
for an armistice, mediation, etc. ; whereas, the complaint made by 
the Emperor went back to a period antecedent to April, 1862 ; 
and was made by him in conversations then held both with Mr. 
Slidell and Mr. Lindsay. I find it thus referred to in my No. 8 
of April 2ist, 1862 — reporting what passed between Mr. Lindsay 
and the Emperor on the i8th of that month, viz : ' That Earl 
Russell had dealt unfairly in sending to Lord Lyons his previous 
propositions to England in regard to action on the blockade, who 
had made them known to Mr. Seward ; and this latter was an 
insuperable objection to his again communicating oMcially at 
London, touching American affairs, until he knew England was 
in accord.' 

" Mr. Lindsay, who is au fait in the whole matter, will doubt- 



LIFE OF JAMES MUBBAT MASON. 



429 



less present the true issue when the debate is resumed on the 
13th. The Under Secretary, as you will see, also reiterated the 
denial that any communication had been recently received from 
the Emperor ; in which denial, he said the Foreign Office was 
backed by Baron Gros, the French Ambassador. These collat- 
eral issues are used in Parliament only to damage the ministry, 
though, if established, we may have the incidental benefit. 

" The Paris correspondent of the Times, who is generally 
considered accurate, in his letter publislied this morning says, 
that private letters from Madrid inform him that the Spanish 
Government had been sounded on the question of recognition, 
with an intimation, if Spain was ready, she should have the sup- 
port of France. This latter power would seem to be playing a 
complicated diplomatic game ; but under what form of policy, I 
am not skillful enough to divine. 

" I have, etc.j 

"J.M.MASON." 

Circular referred to in last dispatch : 

General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson. 

" Two continents, both friend and foe, combine to mourn 
the premature death of General Jackson, hero and Christian. 
Two years have been sufficient to create a fame which has won 
the kindly respect of enemies and the admiration of the Old 
World, which twenty-four months since was ignorant of his ex- 
istence. 

" It has been suggested that some general recognition from 
Great Britain of the worth of such a man, by name, by race, and 
by character related to us, although the citizen of another land, 
would be a graceful token of friendly feeling from the old country 
to our kinsmen across the Atlantic. 

" The eminent sculptor, J. H. Foley, Esq., R. A., has under- 
taken to execute a marble statue, heroic size, of the General for 
£ 1,000 while £500 may be required for pedestal, inscription, and 
other extras. 

"Accordingly, for £1,500 a complete statue of Stonewall 
Jackson, by one of our most distinguished sculptors, may be 
prepared for transmission to his native country when the unhappy 



^jQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

war shall have ceased. Towards raising this sum, the sub- 
scriptions of our countrymen and countrywomen are earnestly 
solicited. Central and local committees, with auxiliary ladies' 
committees, are being formed to collect the necessary funds. 

" The undersigned will gladly receive subscriptions until 
final arrangements are made, and an account has been opened for 
General Jackson's statue, at Messrs. Coutts & Company, Strand, 
London, W. C. 

" N. B. — It is not at all intended that subscriptions to this 
statue should imply any opinion on the merits of the American 
struggle. They will be taken solely and simply as a recognition 
of the rare personal merit of General Jackson. 

[Committee:] 

A. J. B. BERESFORD HOPE, Esq., 
SIR JAMES FERGUSSON, Bart., M. P. 
LORD CAMPBELL, 
W. H. GREGORY, Esq., M. P., 
SIR COUTTS LINDSAY, Bart., 
G. PEACOCK, Esq., 
W. LINDSAY, Esq., M. P., 
G. E. SEYMOUR, Esq., 
SIR E. KERRISON, Bart.; M. P., 
LORD EUSTACE CECIL, 
HON. EARNEST DUNCOMBE, M. P., 
HON. C. FITZWILLIAM, 
J. LAIRD, M. P., 
J. SPENCE, Esq. 
EARL OF DONOUGHMORE, 
SIR EARDLEY EARDLEY, Bart., 
COLONEL GREVILLE, M. P., 
A. J. B. BERESFORD HOPE, Esq., i Connaught Place, 

Hon. Treasurer. 
W. H. GREGORY, Esq., M. P., 19 Grovesnor Street, W., 

Hon. Secretary. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^jj 

Dispatch No. 42. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, July loth, 1863. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I enclose copies of the communications to Earl Rus- 
sell, dated respectively the 4th and 6th of July — the first contain- 
ing the newspaper slip of your dispatch of the 6th of June re- 
ferred to in my No. 41, with the reply of Lord Russell acknowl- 
edging its receipt — the second, transmitting to him the protest 
of the master and crew of the Confederate steamer ' Margaret 
and Jessie/ 

" There has been no further debate on Mr. Roebuck's 
motion since the date of my last ; but the imbroglio which then 
presented itself on the French question, to which I referred, has 
been somewhat solved by the enclosed slip (translated) from the 
Moniteur of the 4th instant. The debate stands adjourned to 
Monday next, the 13th instant. In a note from Mr. Slidell, 
dated yesterday, he says: 'As regards what was said of recogni- 
tion by the Emperor, I am satisfied that he has kept his promise 
in good faith. Either the Minister of Foreign Afifairs, or Baron 
Gros, or both, have failed to carry out his instructions or Messrs. 
Russell and Layard have asserted what is false. Perhaps Lord 
Palmerston may have received the communication and failed to 
inform his colleagues of the fact.' The House of Commons is, 
manifestly, much agitated by the entanglement around the ques- 
tion, as it rests since the last debate ; and I think it not improb- 
able that some new phase of it may be presented before closing 
this dispatch to-morrow. I am assured from every quarter, and 
such is the result of my own observation, that four-fifths of the 
House of Commons is with us ; but as parties stand there be- 
tween the Ministry and the Opposition, it is thought, if Roebuck's 
motion should go to a vote, it would be rejected. 

" We are anxiously awaiting the steamer, due to-morrow, 
by which we confidently expect something definite from General 
Lee's movements into Maryland and Pennsylvania. 

"July nth. — The debate on Roebuck's motion was re- 
sumed last night. I send it to you as reported in the Times of 
this morning. As you are aware. Sir James Fergusson, who 



432 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



appealed to Mr. Roebuck to consent to a postponement of the 
debate, is one of the earhest and most earnest friends of the 
cause of the South ; and it was a good sign that Lord Palmerston 
immediately united with Sir James in this appeal. The occasion 
was further marked, too, by the admission of Lord Palmerston 
that the opinions of the French Emperor were well known (an 
admission never hitherto made by the Ministry), and that Eng- 
land was now ready to interchange views with France on the 
American question. To be sure. Lord Palmerston made the 
admission in a manner qualified, designedly, to take from its 
force. Still, it is a great step gained. You will see from the 
general tenor of the debate, that our friends who spoke were 
all in favor of the adjournment — with our adversaries against it. 

" The great movements of General Lee, which have just 
reached us, had much to do with influencing the opinions of our 
friends in favor of postponement. The holding-back on the part 
of Roebuck and Lindsay was designed only to bring the Premier, 
if possible, to a more full committal. 

" Our reports from the North by telegraph from Queenstown 
are to the ist of July instant. They would seem to indicate that 
Lee is perfectly master of the field of his operations both in 
Maryland and in Pennsylvania; and that Washington must 
speedily fall, with Baltimore as accessory, into his possession. 
Should this be realized before Parliament adjourns, I do not 
think the Ministry would hold out against recognition ; or, if they 
did, I think the House of Commons would overrule them. It is ex- 
pected that Parliament will adjourn about the first week in 

August. 

" I have the honor, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No 24. 

" From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commis- 
sioner Confederate States to England. 

" Department of State, 
" Richmond, 6th June, 1863. 
" Sir : Herewith you will receive copies of the following 
papers : 

" A.— Letter of George Moore, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty's 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^jj 

Consul in Richmond, to this Department, dated i6th February, 
1863. 

" B. — Letter from the Secretary of State to Consul Moore, 
20th February, 1863. 

" C. — Letters patent by the President, revoking the ex- 
equatur of Consul Moore, 5th June, 1863. 

" D. — Letter enclosing to Consul Moore a copy of the letters 
patent revoking his exequatur. 

" It is deemed proper to inform you that this action of the 
President was influenced in no small degree by the communica- 
tion to him of an unofificial letter of Consul Moore to which I 
shall presently refer. 

" It appears that two persons named Moloney and Farrell 
who were enrolled as conscripts in our service claimed exemption 
on* the ground that they were British subjects, and Consul 
Moore, in order to avoid the difficulty which prevented his cor- 
responding with this Department as set forth in the paper B. 
addressed himself directly to the Secretary of War, who was 
ignorant of the request made by this Department for the pro- 
duction of the Consul's commission. The Secretary of War 
ordered an investigation of the facts, when it became apparent 
that the two men had exercised the right of suffrage in this 
State, thus debarring themselves of all pretext for denying their 
citizenship ; that both had resided here for eight years, and 
had settled on and were cultivating farms owned by themselves. 
You will find annexed the report of Lieutenant-Colonel Edgar, 
marked E., and it is difficult to conceive a case presenting 
stronger proofs of the renunciation of native allegiance, and of 
the acquisition of de facto citizenship, than are found in that 
report. It is in relation to such a case that it has seemed proper 
to Consul Moore to denounce the Government of the Confeder- 
ate States to one of its own citizens as being ' indifferent ' to 
cases of the most atrocious cruelty. A copy of his letter to the 
counsel of the two men is annexed, marked F. 

" The earnest desire of this Government is to entertain 
amicable relations with all nations, and with none do its interests 
invite the formation of closer ties than with Great Britain. 
Although feeling aggrieved that the Government of Her Majesty 
has pursued a policy, which according to the confessions of Earl 



^j^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

Russell himself, has increased the disparity of strength which he 
considers to exist between the belligerents, and has conferred 
signal advantage on our enemies in a war in which Great Britain 
announces herself to be really and not nominally neutral, the 
President has not deemed it necessary to interpose any obstacle 
to the continued residence of British Consuls within the Con- 
federacy by virtue of exequaturs granted by the former Govern- 
ment. His course has been consistently guided by the principles 
which underlie the whole structure of our Government, The State 
of Virginia having delegated to the Government of the United 
States by the Constitution of 1787, the power of controlling its 
foreign relations, became bound by the action of that Govern- 
ment in its grant of an exequatur to Consul Moore. When Vir- 
ginia seceded, withdrew the powers delegated to the Government 
of the United States, and conferred them on this Government, 
the exequatur granted to Consul Moore was not thereby in- 
validated. An act done by an agent while duly authorized con- 
tinues to bind the principal after the revocation of the agent's 
authority. 

" On these grounds the President has hitherto steadily re- 
sisted all influences which have been exerted to induce him to 
exact of foreign consuls that they should ask for an exequatur 
from the Government as a condition of the continued exercise of 
their functions. It w^s not deemed compatible with the dignity 
of the Government to extort, by enforcing the withdrawal of 
national protection from neutral residents, such inferential recog- 
nition of its independence as might be supposed to be implied in 
the request for an exequatur. The consuls of foreign nations 
therefore, established within the Confederacy, who were in the 
possession of an exequatur issued by the Government of the 
United States prior to the formation of the Confederacy, have 
been maintained and respected in the exercise of their respective 
functions, and the same respect and protection will be accorded 
to them in the future so long as they confine themselves to the 
sphere of their duties and seek neither to evade nor defy the 
legitimate authority of this Government within its own jurisdic- 
tion. 

" There has grown up an abuse, however, the result of this 
tolerance dn the part of the President, which is too serious to be 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



435 



longer allowed. Great Britain has deemed it for her interest to 
refuse acknowledging the patent fact of the existence of this Con- 
federacy as an independent nation. It is scarcely to be expected 
that we should, by our own conduct, imply assent to the justice 
or propriety of that refusal. 

" Now, the British Minister accredited to the Government 
of our enemies assumes the power to issue" instructions to, and 
exercise authority over the consuls of Great Britain residing 
within this country: nay, even to appoint agents to supervise 
British interests in the Confederate States. This course of 
conduct plainly ignores the existence of this Government, and 
implies the continuance of the relations between that Minister 
and the Consuls of Her Majesty resident within the Confederacy 
which existed prior to withdrawal of these States from the Union. 

" It is further the assertion of a right on the part of Lord 
Lyons by virtue of his credentials as Her Majesty's Minister 
at Washington to exercise the power and authority of a minister 
accredited to Richmond, and officially received as such by the 
President. Under these circumstances and because of similar 
action by other ministers, the President has felt it his duty to 
order that no direct communication be permitted between the 
consuls of neutral nations in the Confederacy and the function- 
aries of those nations residing within the enemy's country. All 
communications therefore, between her Majesty's Consuls or 
consular agents in the Confederacy and foreign countries 
whether neutral or hostile, will hereafter be restricted to vessels 
arriving from or dispatched for neutral ports. The President has 
the less reluctance in imposing this restriction because of the 
ample facilities for correspondence which are now afiforded by 
the fleets of Confederate and neutral steamships engaged in reg- 
ular trade between neutral countries and the Confederate ports. 
This trade is daily increasing, in spite of the paper blockade 
which is upheld by Her Majesty's Government in disregard, as 
the President conceives, of the dictates of public law and of the 
duties of impartial neutrality. 

" You are instructed by the President to furnish a copy of 
this dispatch with a copy of the papers appended, to Her 
Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 

" Your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN." 



436 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Dispatch No. 25, 
" From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commis- 
sioner Confederate States to Great Britain. 
" Confederate States of America, 

" Department of State, 

"Richmond, nth June, 1863. 

" Sir : Since my No. 24 of 6th inst., further information 
has reached the Department illustrating most forcibly the neces- 
sity for the action taken by the President on the subject of Her 
Britannic Majesty's Consuls resident within the Confederacy as 
explained in that dispatch. 

" On the i8th May, Mr. Cridland, who had occasionally 
acted as Consul in Richmond during temporary absences of 
Consul Moore, sought an interview at the Department, and on 
being admitted called my attention to an article in the Richmond 
Whig of that date which announced that Mr. Cridland was about 
to depart for Mobile with the commission of Consul, and that he 
was accredited to Mr. Lincoln, not to this Government. Mr. 
Cridland assured me that the statement was erroneous, that he 
was going to Mobile as a private individual, unofficially, to look 
after certain interests of the British Government that had been 
left unprotected by the withdrawal of Consul Magee. He further 
stated that as he was going there unofficially he had not con- 
ceived that there was any impropriety in doing so without com- 
municating his intenton to the Department and hoped that such 
was my own view of the matter. I informed him that all neutral 
residents were at liberty to travel within the Confederacy and to 
transact their business without other restriction than such as the 
military authorities found it necessary to impose for the public 
safety, and that this Department saw no reason to interpose any 
objection to his going to Mobile to transact business unofficially. 
He then said that he had called at the office of the Whig to make 
a similar explanation to the editor of that paper A^ith a view to 
the correction of the erroneous impression created by its article, 
and accordingly on the next day, an article appeared in that 
journal announcing that it had received the assurance from Mr. 
Cridland that he was going to Mobile ' to look after British in- 
terests In that quarter in an unofficial way ' and that he was 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASOW. ^oy 

' without commission from the Queen or exequatur from Wash- 
ington.' 

" I was therefore quite surprised at receiving from the Sec- 
retary of the Navy official communication of a telegram received 
by him from Admiral Buchanan informing the Secretary that Mr. 
Cridland had been officially introduced to him by the French 
Consul as acting English Consul at Mobile and had shown the 
Admiral ' an official document signed by Lord Lyons appointing 
him acting English Consul at Mobile.' I append copies of this 
telegram and of the two articles above referred to extracted from 
the Richmond Whig. 

" These, however, are not the only exceptionable features 
which mark this afifair. Other circumstances to which your 
attention is invited have been brought to the notice of the De- 
partment by official communications from the Governor of 
Alabama. 

" On the nth November last, the bank of Mobile as agent 
for the State of Alabama addressed a communication to Consul 
Magee at Mobile informing him that the State would owe during 
the ensuing year to British subjects interest coupons on the State 
bonds, to the amount of some forty thousand pounds sterling; 
that this interest was payable in London at the Union Bank and 
at the Counting House of the Messrs. Rothschild, and request- 
ing to know whether the bank would be allowed to place in the 
hands of the Consul, in coin, the sum necessary, for transmission 
to England at the expense of the State for the purpose men- 
tioned. 

" On the 14th November, Consul Magee replied that he had 
sent to Her Britannic Majesty's Consul at New Orleans to ask 
if Her Majesty's steamship ' Rinaldo ' could not be sent to 
Mobile to receive the specie and take it to Havana to be for- 
warded thence by the Consul-General of Great Britain to London. 

" The specie was not conveyed by the * Rinaldo ' but by Her 
Majesty's ship ' Vesuvius,' and was accompanied by a certificate 
of the president of the bank stating that the remittance of the 
' thirty-one kegs of specie containing each five thousand dollars, 
together $155,000, is for the purpose of paying dues to British 
subjects from the State of Alabama, and is the property and be- 
longs to the subjects of Her Britannic Majesty.' 



438 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" The shipment was accompanied by a letter addressed by 
the bank, as agent of the State of Alabama, to W. W. Scrimge- 
our, Esq., manager of the Union Bank of London, directing its 
appropriation to the payment of the interest due to British and 
other foreign holders of the State bonds, with a statement of the 
dates at which the several instalments of the interest would be- 
come due and of the places in London where they were to be 
paid. 

" So little doubt seems to have been entertained of the pro- 
priety of this transaction by all that were engaged in it, that the 

* Vesuvius ' informed the commander of the United States block- 
ading squadron that the British Consul had money to send by 
him, and no objection or protest was made. Among the papers 
annexed you will find the account given by Commodore Hitch- 
cock himself of his conversation with the commander of the 
' Vesuvius ' written after the dismissal of Consul Magee, and 
therefore at the period when the Commodore could certainly 
have no motive for giving a coloring to his narrative adverse 
to what was then known to be the views of his Government on 
the subject. 

" Under these circumstances, the * Vesuvius ' received and 
conveyed the specie which has since been received in England, 
and, as stated in the public journals, paid in whole or in part to 
British subjects, thus establishing the bona fides of the conduct 
of all the parties to the transaction. 

" It now appears that no sooner was the intention of mak- 
ing this remittance communicated to Her Britannic Majesty's 
Minister in Washington than he took active measures to prevent 
it by sending dispatches to Mobile forbidding the shipment. 
They, however, failed to arrive before the departure of the 

* Vesuvius ' with the specie, whereupon Consul Magee was dis- 
missed from office for receiving and forwarding it, and the 
vacancy thus created in the office of the British Consul at Mobile 
was filled by Lord Lyons by the issue of a commission to Mr, 
Cridland and his departure for Mobile under the circumstances 
already explained. These facts are of a character so grave as 
to have attracted the earnest attention of the President, and it is 
my duty to apprise you of the conclusions at which he has 
arrived, in order that you may lose no time in laying them before 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^j^ 

Her Majesty's Government, in the hope that a renewed examina- 
tion of the subject and a knowledge of the serious compHcations 
which the present anomalous relations between the two Gov- 
ernments may involve, will induce the British Cabinet to review its 
whole policy connected with these relations and to place them on 
tlie sole footing consistent with accomplished facts that are too 
notorious and too firmly established to be much longer ignored. 

" By the principles of the modern public code, debts due by 
a State are not subject to the operation of the laws of war, and 
are considered so sacred as to be beyond the reach of confisca- 
tion. An attempt at such confiscation would be reprobated by 
mankind. The United States alone in modern times have 
courted such reprobation, and just detestation has been uni- 
versally expressed of their confiscation laws passed during the 
pending war. The Government of Great Britain, on the contrary, 
has at all times manifested its abhorrence of such breaches of 
public faith, and in the Crimean war gave to the world a memo- 
rable example of its own high regard for public honor by paying 
over to its enemy money which it well knew would be immediately 
employed in waging hostilities against itself. The States of this 
Confederacy are emulous of examples of honor. And they ac- 
cordingly refrained, on the breaking out of hostilities, from even 
the temporary sequestration of the dividends of their public debt 
due to their enemies. It was not until they had received notice 
of the confiscation law passed by the United States on the 6th 
August, 1861, that they consented to the temporary sequestration 
of the property of their enemies, and even then the sequestration 
was declared to be for the sole purpose of securing a fund to 
indemnify the sufiferers under the confiscation law of the United 
States. 

" The following clause of our law, exempting public debts 
from its operation, is extracted as a proof of the sacred regard 
for public faith manifested by these States under strong tempta- 
tion to retaliate, and under all the exasperation of the savage 
warfare then actually waged against them : ' Provided further, 
That the provisions of this act shall not extend to the stocks or 
public securities of the Confederate Government, or of any of the 
States of this Confederacy, held or owned by any alien enemy, 
or to any debt, obligation or sum due from the Confederate Gov- 



..Q LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



ernment or any of the States to such alien enemies.' (Sequestra- 
tion Law of Confederate States, passed 30th August, 1861.) 

" Such being the obHgations imposed on States in regard to 
the payment of public debts towards even their enemies, no deeper 
reproach can stain their name than the refusal to do justice to 
mutual creditors. The observance of plighted public faith con- 
cerns mankind at large ; in it all nations have a common interest, 
and the belligerent who perverts the weapons of legitimate war- 
fare into an instrumentality for forcing his enemy to dishonor his 
obligations and incur the reproach of being faithless to his 
engagements, wages a piratical and not an honorable warfare, 
and becomes hostis generis Immani. Public honor is held sacred 
by international law against the attack of the most malevolent foe, 
and as susceptible of loss only by the recreancy of its possessor. 

" What possible lawful interest could the United States 
have in preventing the remittance of the specie due to the credi- 
tors of the State of Alabama ? Blockades are allowed by the law 
of nations as a means of enforcing the submission of an enemy 
by the destruction of his commerce, the exhaustion of his re- 
sources, and consequent forced abandonment of the struggle. The 
remittance of the specie in the present case, far from retarding 
these legitimate objects, tended, on the contrary, to promote 
them by the diversion of the money from application to military 
purposes. THe United States could not have desired that the 
specie should remain within the Confederacy save with one or two 
motives: First, to dishonor the State of Alabama by giving 
■color to the reproach that it was regardless of public faith, and on 
this, comment has already been made ; or, secondly, in the hope 
that by the fortunes of war the money would come within the 
reach of spoliation under its confiscation law. It is scarcely 
necessary to observe that the desire to enrich itself by plunder 
at the expense of neutral creditors is as little consonant with 
respect for public law and the rights of neutrals, as the purpose 
forcibly to prevent the State of Alabama from redeeming its 
plighted faith. 

" Whatever may be the value to which these views may be 
justly entitled, it is certain that there are but few aspects in which 
the State of Alabama can be regarded by Her Majesty's Gov- 
•ernment. Alabama is either one of the States of the former 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAT MASON. ^^j 



Union engaged in armed rebellion against the legitimate authority 
of the United States, or is an independent State, and a member 
of the Confederacy engaged in lawful war against the United 
States. An examination of the effect of either of these relations 
upon the facts connected with the dismissal of Consul Magee 
and the appointment of Mr. Cridland, will now be presented in 
vindication of the action which the President deems it his duty to 
take on this subject. 

" I. — If the British Government think proper to assume 
(although the contrary is deemed by this Government to be fully 
established by convincing reason and victorious arms) that the 
State of Alabama is still one of the United States, then the Gov- 
ernment of the United States is bound, towards Great Britain as 
well as to all other neutral nations, to render all legitimate aid 
in the collection of their just claims against that State. Although 
by the Constitution of the United States, its Government may be 
wdthout power to enforce the payment of a debt due to foreign 
subjects or powers by an unwilling State, none can doubt its 
duty to interpose no obstruction to the payment of such debt ; 
and no more legitimate ground of complaint could be afforded 
to Great Britain against the Government of the United States 
than an opposition made by that Government to the payment of 
a just debt due by Alabama to the subjects of Great Britain. In 
this aspect of the case, the British officials at Mobile were doing 
a duty which ought to have been equally acceptable both to the 
United States and Great Britain when they facilitated the trans- 
mission of funds by that State for that purpose to England, 
where the debt was made payable, and merited applause rather 
than a manifestation of displeasure. 

" 2. — If, on the contrary, the State of Alabama be regarded 
(as in right and fact she really is) an independent State engaged in 
war against the United States as a foreign enemy, then the Presi- 
dent can not refrain from observing that the action of Her Britan- 
nic Majesty's Minister at Washington savored, on this occasion, 
rather of unfriendly cooperation with an enemy, than of just 
observance of neutral obligations. For in this view of the case, 
a Minister accredited to the Government of our enemies has not 
only assumed the exercise of authority within this Confederacy 
without the knowledge or consent of its Government, but has done 



442 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



SO under circumstances that rather aggravate than paUiate the 
offense of disregarding its sovereign rights. His action further 
conveys the imphcation that the Confederacy is subordinate to 
the United States, and that his credentials addressed to the Gov- 
ernment at Washington justify his ignoring the existence of this 
Government and his regarding these States as an appendage of 
the country to which he is accredited. Nor will Her Majesty's 
Government fail to perceive that in no sense can it be considered 
consonant with the rights of this Government, or with neutral 
obligations, that a public Minister should be maintained near the 
Cabinet of our enemies charged both with the duty of entertain- 
ing amicable relations with them, and with the power of control- 
ling the conduct of British officials resident with us. 

" Nor will the application of the foregoing remarks be at 
all impaired if Her Majesty's Government, declining to determine 
the true relation of the State of Alabama to the United States, 
cTioose to consider that question as still in abeyance and to regard 
that State as simply a belligerent whose ulterior status must await 
the event of the war. In this hypothesis, the objection to dele- 
gating authority over British officials residing with us, to a Min- 
ister charged with the duty of rendering himself acceptable to 
our enemies, is still graver than would exist in the case of hos- 
tile nations equally recognized as independent by a neutral power. 
For in the latter case, the parties would have equal ability to 
vindicate their rights through the usual channels of official inter- 
course, whereas in the former the belligerent which enjoys ex- 
clusively this advantage is armed by the neutral with additional 
power to inflict injury on his enemy. 

" The l^resident has, in the facts already recited, seen re- 
newed reasons for adhering to his determination mentioned in 
my preceding dispatch of prohibiting any direct communication 
between Consuls or Consular Agents residing within the Con- 
federacy and the functionaries of their Governments residing 
amongst our enemies. He further indulges the hope (which Her 
Majesty's Government can not but regard as reasonable and 
which he is therefore confident will be justified by its action) that 
Her Majesty's Government will chose some other mode of trans- 
mitting its orders and exercising authority over its agents within 
the Confederacy than by delegating to functionaries who reside 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



443 



among our enemies the powers to give orders or instructions to 
those who reside amone: us. 

" Finally, and in order to prevent any further misunderstand- 
ing in Mr. Cridland's case, that gentleman has been informed 
that he can not be permitted to exercise Consular functions at 
Mobile, and it has been intimated to him that his choice of some 
other State than Alabama for his residence would be agreeable 
to this Government. This intimation has been given in order to 
avoid any difficulty which might result from the doubtful position 
of Mr. Cridland, who is looked on here as a private individual and 
who in Alabama represents himself as ' Acting English Consul.' 

" The President is confident Her Majesty's Government will 
render full justice to the motives by which these measures are 
prompted, and will perceive in them a manifestation of the earn- 
est desire entertained by him to prevent the possibility of any 
unfortunate complications having a tendency to impair the amity 
which it is equally the interest and the desire of this Government 
to cherish with that of Great Britain. 

" The President wishes a copy of this dispatch to be placed by 
you in the hands of Earl Russell. 

" I am, sir, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 
" J. P. BENJAMIN, 

" Secretary of State." 

Dispatch No. 26. . 

" From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Cofnmis- 
sioner Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Department of State, 
" Richmond, June 12th, 1863. 
" Sir : I append copies of two letters of Earl Russell on the 
subject of the prisoner Hester, enclosed by Mr. Moore to this 
Department. 

" You are requested to inform his Lordship that this Gov- 
ernment will be prepared to receive the prisoner at any port of 
the Confederacy where he may be delivered, and that in the event 
of a refusal on the part of the United States to consent to the pas- 
sage of the ' Shannon ' through the blockade, we will send a 
naval officer of the Confederacy to Bermuda, charged with 



444 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



authority to receive the prisoner and bring him into one of our 
ports on a vessel of the Confederate Government. 

" You will be pleased to renew to Her Majesty's Secretary 
of State for Foreign Affairs the expression of the thanks of this 
Government for his considerate attention in the matter. 
" I am, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN." 

Copy of letter from Earl Russell to Consul Moore: 

" Foreign Office, May 2d, 1863. 

" Sir : I have to acquaint you, in reply to your dispatch No. 
14, of the 17th of February, that arrangements are in progress for 
transferring to Bermuda for present custody, the prisoner charged 
with having committed a murder on board the Confederate 
steamer ' Sumter,' at Gibraltar, and that as soon as the consent 
of the Government of the United States has been obtained, for the 
passage through the blockade of Her Majesty's ship, in which the 
prisoner will be embarked, he will be sent to a port in the pos- 
session of the Confederates, for delivery to the local authorities. 

" I am, of course, unable now to say to what port the prisoner 
will eventually be sent, but you should arrange for his being re- 
ceived by the Confederate authorities at whatever port the ship 
conveying him may arrive. 

" I am, etc., 

" RUSSELL." 

" Foreign Office, May 15th, 1863. 
" Sir : With reference to my dispatch No. 5, of the 2d inst., 
I have to acquaint you that I have been informed by the Board 
of Admiralty that Her Majesty's ship ' Shannon ' left Gibraltar 
on the 5th instant for Bermuda, having on board Mr. Hester, the 
prisoner charged with the murder of the commanding officer of 
the Confederate steamer ' Sumter.' 

" I am, etc., 

" RUSSELL. 
" G. Moore, Esq." 

In his dispatch No. 43, of the 6th of August, Mr. Mason 
wrote : " The hopes and expectations of our friends in Europe 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



445 



have been much depressed by the late intelligence from the South, 
one marked effect of which has been on the Loan, quoted yester- 
day as low as 30 per cent, discount. I am informed, however, 
by Mr. McRae, the Treasury agent here, that arrangements had 
been previously fully completed to make the whole proceeds of the 
loan available, as stipulated in the contract, of which he has doubt- 
less informed the Secretary of the Treasury, 

" The engagements of the Government here, present and 
prospective, both for the army and navy, it is very manifest will 
require much larger sums than will be derived from the loan, 
and I would earnestly suggest that arrangements should be per- 
fected as speedily as possible, by means of fast steamers, for bring- 
ing out cotton on Government account (as is now done to some 
extent) to Nassau and Bermuda. When there it could be made 
immediately available here by insurance. The fortunes of the 
late loan, I think, will preclude any other for the present." 

Dispatch No. 44, dated the 4th of September, said : " The 
copy of ' Hansard's Debates,' directed to be purchased by your 
No. 27, will go off to Bermuda, via Halifax, to-morrow in the 
steamer bearing this dispatch, sent to N. S. Walker, Esq., com- 
mercial agent, to whom I have written, with instructions to for- 
ward it. Your instructions for a continuing subscription by the 
Department of State have been executed, but I regret the volumes 
could not be lettered in time for their departure. I hope they may 
safely reach you. The books previously sent went to Bermuda, 
via Halifax, a month ago. 

" In regard to the transmission of my dispatches, they are 
now sent regularly by the British mail, either to Bermuda or 
Nassau. 

" I shall be happy to receive the appeal ' to the justice of 
neutral powers on the subject of the blockade,' proposed in your 
No. 2y. The correspondence with Earl Russell, I fear, will show 
that little impression can be expected to be produced on this Gov- 
ernment, at least, on the subject of the blockade. You will find 
that I laid before him evidence of the arrival of one hundred and 
two vessels at the port of Nassau, alone, from blockaded ports, 
within less than a year, terminating on the 2d June last ; in reply 
to which he merely says that ' Her Majesty's Government see 
no reason to alter their opinion as to the efficiency of the block- 



446 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



ade, etc' I think that I expressed the opinion in former dis- 
patches that this Government did not intend to treat the text of 
the Convention of Paris (although a party to the Convention) as 
the law of blockade binding on it, but would resort to evasions, 
however palpable, to justify its violation on their part. 

" I regret that I did not see Lieutenant Capston, spoken of 
in your No. 29 as sent by the Department to Ireland. He re- 
mained, it appears, but a day or two in London, where he saw Mr. 
Hotze, to whom he was referred, and then proceeded on his mis- 
sion. There being a recess in public affairs at this season of the 
year, I availed myself of it to pay a visit to Ireland of a fortnight, 
whence I returned about the time Lieutenant Capston went there. 
His mission may be of value in obtaining information as to the 
manner in which emigrants are induced to go to the United States, 
and thus, possibly, furnish the means of counter-movement on 
our part ; but I should doubt whether he could make much impres- 
sion upon the emigrating class in endeavors to enlighten them as 
to the true character of the war. Such seems the ignorant and des- 
titute condition of most of that class that the temptation of a little 
ready money and promise of good wages would lead them 
to go anywhere. In regard to this emigration, I could learn only 
that it was going on largely, chiefly to New York, and under the 
inducements offered by Northern emissaries, but always under 
the guise that they were wanted for work on railroads or as farm 
hands. Whatever aid I can render to give efficiency in the accom- 
plishment of this mission shall be fully extended. 

" Our loan, as you will have seen, sustained a sudden and 
great fall on the intelligence of our reverses on the Mississippi 
and General Lee's return to Virginia. These incidents of the war 
have had a most depressing effect on the barometer of the Stock 
Exchange, and it can not be denied that they produce doubt and 
uncertainty in regard to our affairs on the public mind ; yet the 
considerate and settled judgment of intelligent men remains, that 
reunion or reconstruction is a thing impossible. Perhaps the 
best index of opinion of that character is found in the Times, 
and in this connection, I send an extract from its impressions of 
to-day, being a succinct reply to the late elaborate manifesto 
addressed by Mr. Seward to his foreign Consuls on the subject 
of the War. The opinion seems general now that the war will 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^^y 



continue, at least, during the present Federal Administration, 
and which I have great fears may be well founded. It may drag 
on more heavily than hitherto from want of men, but I think the 
late manifestations in New York evince that the State Government 
there has succumbed to the Federal military power. 

" From recent events in Mexico I am again hopeful that 
France may be compelled to take a position of value to us. The in- 
dications now are, and such seems the tone of the Continental 
press, that Russia will so far modify her policy in regard to 
Poland as to remove all apprehension of war with the Western 
Powers. This will much disembarrass the Emperor ; and as soon 
as the Empire becomes an accomplished fact, or, in advance of 
that, when such Empire is determined upon and avowed on the 
part of France, there must arise, it appears to me, unamicable 
relations between that country and the United States. What form 
they will first assume may be problematical, but the advantage to 
result to us is inevitable. 

" You have not adverted in your dispatches to the views of 
the President as to the policy it may become us to pursue in the 
event, now at hand, of monarchy established in Mexico by 
France. Would it not be well that such policy should be defined, 
and put in possession of Mr. Slidell and myself? Looking on at 
this distance, and in view of what has happened in our own coun- 
try, and what may be yet in store for us in the South when, 
even after peace, we must have for years a licentious and irre- 
sponsible mob Government as our neighbor in the North, it would 
seem to me of no little moment to have France, through its inter- 
ests in Mexico, as our ally against it. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., % 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 45. 

" Confederate States Commission, 

" London, September 5th, 1863. 
" Hofi. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : It is very manifest from what comes before me here, 
that there are already existing and prospective demands by the 
Government for money in Europe very far exceeding the avails 
of the late loan. Correspondence between officers here and their 



448 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



respective departments at home show that exchange there is 
exhausted or to be had only in small sums at 5 or 6 for one. The 
quotations yesterday for our loan were at 28 per cent, dis- 
count, and its late fluctuations fully establish that its fortunes 
vary with the varying fortunes of the war. I think it would be 
unwise, therefore, to look at present to a future loan in Europe. 

" The success of those engaged in running the blockade, and 
vi'ho bring out cotton in exchange for their inward cargoes, I am 
told, has already made that article scarce on the seaboard. I am 
aware that the War Department and, perhaps, the Navy, have 
commenced, in a limited way, to send out cotton to meet demands 
upon them here, and done it successfully, though far below the 
demands upon them. 

" In a conversation last night with Mr. McRae, the Treasury 
agent for the loan, he told me that he had recently written to 
the Secretary of the Treasury, strongly urging that the Govern- 
ment should take the whole subject of the export of cotton and 
running the blockade into its own hands. I do not know that 
better or more skillful counsels in this matter could be had than 
from that gentleman. Besides being an earnest patriot, he is well 
versed in everything pertaining to the export of cotton. The ex- 
perience of private enterprise seems to have adjusted trade through 
the blockade in such manner as to have removed much of the risk 
and expense. Supplies are sent from here in saiHng vessels as 
English property, bona fide, and thence transshipped to the coast 
in fast sailing steamers of small draught, and they bring out cotton 
as return cargoes. I can see nothing to prevent the Government 
taking this whole business into its exclusive hands, and when 
the cotton is placed in one of the islands, its value is available here 
at once, without further risk. Under the control of a separate 
bureau, and in charge of naval ofificers, it must work well. If 
the war is prolonged, besides supplying all the wants of the Gov- 
ernment in Europe at a cost cheapened by the absence of the 
immoderate profits now reaped by private enterprise, it would 
bring down exchange, and thus have an important influence in 
strengthening our currency at home ; besides, its effect upon our 
credit in Europe, when results were attained, would be of immense 
importance in a political view. 

" As things are conducted at present, through private chan- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



449 



nels, there is little doubt that the enemy shares largely in the 
profits of running the blockade, as evinced, amongst other things, 
by the large shipments of cotton made to New York from the 
West Indian Islands. 

" I have been so strongly impressed by our increasing wants 
here, with the importance of this matter^ that I venture thus to 
submit it to the consideration of the Government. 
" I have the honor to be^ etc.^ 

" J. M. MASON." 



Dispatch No. 30. — Received September 14, 1863. 
" Department of State, 
" Richmond, August 4th, 1863. 
"Hon. James M. Mason, 

" Commissioner of the Confederate States, 

''London, England. 
" Sir : The perusal of the recent debates in the British Par- 
liament satisfies the President that the Government of Her 
Majesty has determined to decline the overtures made through 
you for establishing, by treaty, friendly relations between the two 
Governments, and entertains no intentions of receiving you as the 
accredited Minister of this Government near the British Court. 
" Under these circumstances, your continued residence in 
London is neither conducive to the interests nor consistent with 
the dignity of this Government, and the President therefore re- 
quests that you consider your mission at an end, and that you 
withdraw, with your secretary, from London. 

" In arriving at this conclusion, it gives me pleasure to say 
that the President is entirely satisfied with your own conduct of 
the delicate mission confided to you, and that it is in no want of 
proper effort on your part that the necessity for your recall has 
originated. 

" If you find that it is in accordance with usage, to give 
notice of your intended withdrawal to Earl Russell, you will, of 
course, conform to precedent in that respect. 

" Your obedient servant, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN, 

" Secretary of State." 



450 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Private. 
" Hon. James M. Mason. 

" Dear Sir : The President desires me to say to you that, 
while the instructions contained in my No. 30, herewith forwarded, 
purport to be unconditional, he does not desire that you should 
consider yourself precluded from the exercise of all discretion on 
the subject, in the event of any marked or decisive change in the 
policy of the British Cabinet before your receipt of the dispatch. 
" Although no such change is anticipated, it is not deemed 
prudent to ignore altogether its possibility, and it is in this view 
of the case that discretion is left you as to your action. 

" In the absence of some important and marked change of 
conduct on the part of Great Britain, however, the President 
desires that your action on the instructions in No. 30 be as prompt 
as convenient. 

" I am, very respectfully, 
" Your obedient servant, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN, 

" Secretary of State." 

Dispatch No. 31. 

" Department of State, 
" Richmond, August 17th. 
"Hon. James M. Mason, 

" Commissioner of Confederate States: 

" Sir : I have the honor to forward duplicate of my No. 
30, of the 4th instant. I should have mentioned in that dispatch 
that the President deems the best mode of disposing of the 
archives of your mission will be to deposit them with Mr. 
Slidell, until our relations with Great Britain can be placed on 
a footing satisfactory to this Government. It would be well, also, 
that you should inform our officers in England that whenever at 
a loss how to act in the business confided to them by the several 
departments, it is expected by the President that they will con- 
sult Mr. Slidell with the same freedom as they have heretofore 
consulted with you. 

" In the matter of the Seal of the Confederacy, and some 
other small affairs which you have been good enough to put in 
train for the Department, I suppose Mr. Hotze can take your in- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



451 



structions about terminating them. You may, however, confide 
them to another person at your choice if you have any reason for 
preferring not to entrust them to Mr. Hotze. 

" I have received your dispatches down to No. 41 inclusive 
(with the exception of Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8), but deem it scarcely 
necessary, under the circumstances, to reply to them in detail. 

" We have as yet no news of the books purchased, and for 
which you enclosed a bill. 

" Your letters for Mrs. Mason have been handed to her. I 
am happy to inform you that all your family are well. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN." 

Dispatch No. 46. 

" London, September 25th, 1863. 
"Hon. J. P. Benjamin, 

"Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Your No. 30, of the 4th August last, with your 
private note of the same date, reached me on the 14th of Septem- 
ber instant. Having seen no evidence of any probable change in 
the policy of the British Government in regard to recognition, 
which was the only contingency expressed in the private note, 
on which I should exercise discretion in carrying into effect the 
instructions contained in your No. 30, I was prepared at once to 
notify Her Majesty's Government of the termination of this mis- 
sion. Still, as Mr. Slidell and I had always freely conferred 
before taking any step of importance in our respective positions, 
I thought it best to defer any action until consultation with him. 
His absence in Biarritz delayed his reply to my letter until the 
19th instant. He fully agreed with me that there appeared noth- 
ing, present or in prospect, to be expected from this Govern- 
ment which could affect the limited discretion given in your 
private note, and we both agreed in the propriety and soundness 
of the policy embodied in your instructions to terminate this mis- 
sion, and to withdraw, with the Secretary of the Commission, 
from London. I accordingly, on Monday last (the 21st instant), 
addressed to Earl Russell the note of which I have the honor to 
transmit a copy herewith, which was delivered the same day at 
the Foreign Office. I have, as yet, had no reply, but Lord Russell 



y,r2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

was then, I understand, and yet remains, absent in Scotland. I 
hope the form given to this note will meet with your approval. 
It quotes from the dispatch the reasons assigned for the termina- 
tion of the mission ; and to bring them before the British and 
European public, I deemed it proper to publish the note in the 
Index, the reputed organ of Southern interests. It appeared 
there in its issue of yesterday, and this morning was generally 
copied by the daily press, with various comments. 

" It is difficult to say, in advance, what effect may be pro- 
duced upon the public mind in England by this decided act of our 
Government; nor should I anticipate its having any effect on 
ministerial counsels. It is not unlikely that some prejudice may 
result to the many and large interests of our Government now 
pending in this country, from the absence of a responsible head 
to solve the difficulties or assume responsibilities. Still, as a 
measure of dignified and becoming policy, I am satisfied of the 
entire wisdom in which it is founded. 

" I shall be prepared to leave London in the course of a 
very few days, and at the suggestion of Mr. Slidell, shall go to 
Paris, where he will again be about the ist of October. Should 
there be anything further to communicate, I will write to you 
again by mail to Bermuda, leaving on the 3d of October. This 
goes in the closed mail to Nassau. 

" The Record Book and Archives shall be deposited with 
Mr. Slidell. Other property belonging to the Commission, con- 
sisting of two desks for papers, books, etc., shall be placed in safe 
hands here, and accurate lists, together with information of the 
place of deposit, be transmitted to the Department. Notice shall 
be given to the officers of the Government in England, as you 
direct, to consult Mr. Slidell in matters pertaining to their mis- 
sions. 

" The preparations of the devices for the Seal, I have already 
placed in charge of Mr, Foley, R. N., probably the most eminent 
sculptor in England, and will take care that it is promptly 
attended to. 

" I was surprised to learn that you had not received, so late 
as yours of 17th August, the parcel of books first sent, and of 
which you had received the bill. As directed by you, they were 
sent to Messrs. Eraser, Trenholm and Company, at Liverpool, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



453 



addressed to Major N. S. Walker, Bermuda, for shipment, and I 
have their letter, dated 19th June last, acknowledging the receipt 
of the box of books for the Department of State, with an assur- 
ance that it should be sent to Bermuda, via Halifax. It should, 
therefore, have reached you long since. 

" The copy of ' Hansard,' ordered by a late dispatch, was 
put up in two boxes, addressed to N. S. Walker, Bermuda, and 
marked with the initials /. P. B. 

" Should you have further occasion to communicate with me, 
please address me to the care of Mr. Slidell. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

" 24 Upper Seymour Street, 

" PoRTMAN Square, 

" September 21st 1863. 
" The Right Hon. Earl Russell, etc., etc.: 

" My Lord : In a dispatch from the Secretary of State of 
the Confederate States of America, dated 4th of August, and 
just now received, I am instructed to consider the Commission 
which brought me to England as at an end, and I am directed to 
withdraw at once from the country. 

" The reasons for terminating this mission are set forth in 
an extract from the dispatch which I have the honor to communi- 
cate herewith. 

" The President believes that, ' The Government of Her 
Majesty has determined to decline the overtures made through 
you for establishing, by treaty, friendly relations between the 
two Governments, and entertains no intentions of receiving you 
as the accredited Minister of this Government near the British 
Court. 

" * Under these circumstances, your continued residence in 
London is neither conducive to the interests nor consistent with 
the dignity of this Government, and the President, therefore, re- 
quests that you consider your mission at an end, and that you 
withdraw, with your secretary, from London.' 

" Having made known to your Lordship, on my arrival here, 
the character and purpose of the mission entrusted to me by my 



.r. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Government, I have deemed it due to courtesy thus to make 
known to the Government of Her Majesty its termination, and 
that I shall, as directed, at once withdraw from England. 
" I have the honor to be, etc., 

" J. M. MASON, 
"Special Commissioner, etc." 

Unofficial Letter to Mr. Davis. 

" Paris, 2d October, 1863. 
"My Dear Sir: By mail via Nassau last week, I sent to the 
Department of State my letter to Earl Russell, announcing the 
termination of the Commission to England, pursuant to your in- 
structions in the dispatch of Mr. Benjamin of the 4th August and 
that as directed I should withdraw from London. By the same 
mail I sent you a private note expressing that I was at some loss 
to know whether it was intended that I should remain for the 
present in Europe, or at my discretion should return home, and 
that in a note from Mr. Slidell, independent of any suggestion from 
me, he assumed as of course,, that I was to remain in Europe, 
to await further instructions from the Government. Since I 
came here, after a full conversation with Mr. Slidell, he retains 
the same opinion as he may probably write to you by mail with 
this. My desire is to have the doubt solved, having it only in 
view to do that which may best conform to the purposes of the 
Government, or which, in its judgment, may best promote its 
service. It has seemed to me, too, the more proper that I should 
await further instructions, because of the uncertainty attending 
communications with Europe, and because, should a contingency 
arise when England, receding from her position (perhaps at the 
renewed instance of France) might be disposed to enter into 
relations with us, I should be at hand with the letter of credence 
in my possession, to present myself as the representative of our 
country. Mr. Slidell and I both agree that as things stand, though 
no longer Commissioner to England yet until otherwise instructed, 
should the contingency suggested above arise, and that England 
was prepared to receive me as Minister, it would be my duty at 
once to present my letter of credence. Such, at least, is the form on 
which the question presents itself here and it is thought better to 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^^c 



await further advice than to act precipitately. And I should add 
that Colonel Lamar, now in Paris, with whom I have also freely 
conferred, entirely concurs in the views of Mr. Slidell. I shall, 
therefore, remain in Europe until your wishes or purpose in 
regard to this matter, are received, and act accordingly. 

" Notwithstanding the reluctance of those really our friends 
in the House of Commons to vote Mr. Roebuck's motion, yet I 
am satisfied from intercourse with them at the time, that it 
resulted from no disaffection to our cause, but was really attribu- 
table to the peculiar juncture of parties just now in England. 
Lord Palmerston's great personal popularity is the mainstay of 
his administration ; the opposition are by no means satisfied that 
were his party overthrown in the House, it would not, by reason 
of his general popularity, be strengthened by a new election. They 
think were he out of the way, they would come in with a strength 
greatly increased — add to this that he is now far advanced in 
years and subject to sharp attacks of gout, or its incidents. 

" Were there a new administration or one reconstructed on 
the loss of its chief, or any event that would displace Lord Rus- 
sell, it is thought, and I think correctly, that the policy of Eng- 
land in regard to our country would undergo great modification. 

" Colonel Lamar, who found it desirable to avail himself of 
the best medical advice in Paris, is now in much improved health 
and about to return home. 

" When it is determined whether I am to remain in Europe or 
otherwise (and if there be no reason against promulging it) it 
would, I think, much interest my good wife to learn it. I, of 
course, do not inform her of what I have written to you. 

" With most respectful and kind regards to Mrs. Davis, 
"Yours, my dear sir, most truly, 

"J. M. MASON. 
" Hon. Jefferson Davis." 

" London, October 19th, 1863. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I have the honor to transmit to you herewith a copy 
of a letter from Earl Russell to me, dated the 25th of September 
ultimo, in reply to mine of the 21st of same month, in which I 
informed him of the termination of my mission to London. It 



45<^ 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



would seem proper that it should go on the files of the Department. 

" My letter to Earl Russell, as you will see, is dated 21st 
September — on the 30th I left London for Paris, having given up 
my house, and removed all my effects, with the archives of the mis- 
sion. All the books and other things belonging to the Commis- 
sion are carefully packed and deposited for safe-keeping with 
my bankers. The cases for papers, etc., I left with Mr. Hotze. 
Complete lists of all are preserved in the box with the archives. 

" After remaining some two weeks in Paris, I returned, a few 
days since, here, to close some matters necessarily left open ; but 
have remained chiefly in the country, coming to London but 
occasionally ; and shall soon return to the Continent. I have 
nothing of interest to communicate. Colonel Lamar, who bears 
this, can give you the latest and best impressions of things in 
Europe. 

" I have, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 

" From Earl Russell. 

" Foreign Office, September, 1863. 

" Sir : I have had the honor of receiving your letter of the 
21 st instant, informing me that your Government had ordered you 
to withdraw from this country on the ground that Her Majesty's 
Government had declined the overtures made through you for 
establishing, by treaty, friendly relations, and have no intention 
of receiving you as the accredited Minister of the Confederate 
States at the British Court. 

" I have on other occasions explained to you the reasons 
which have induced Her Majesty's Government to decline the 
overtures you allude to, and the motives which have hitherto pre- 
vented the British Court from recognizing you as the accredited 
Minister of an established State. 

" These reasons are still in force, and it is not necessary to 
repeat them. 

" I regret that circumstances have prevented my cultivating 
your personal acquaintance, which, in a different state of affairs 
I should have done with much pleasure and satisfaction. 

" I have, etc., 

" RUSSELL. 
" J. M. Mason, Esq." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^ey 

Dispatch No. 32. 

From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M . Mason, Commis 
sioner Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Department of State, 

"Richmond, 13th November, 1863. 

" Sir : I have been compelled to await the President's return 
from the Southwest before answering your No. 46 announcing 
your withdrawal from London in conformity with the instructions 
contained in my No. 30. 

" Until the receipt of your dispatch it was of course impos- 
sible to foresee whether you might not find it necessary to ex- 
ercise the discretion confided to you in the private instructions 
which accompanied those containing your recall. 

" As we now know, however, that your mission to England 
has terminated, L have the President's authority for informing 
you that your services are considered by your Government as too 
valuable and useful to be dispensed with, and that you have again 
been appointed by him Commissioner under the Act No. 226 of 
20th August, 1 86 1, entitled 'An Act to empower the President 
of the Confederate States to appoint additional Commissioners to 
Foreign Nations.' Mr. Macfarland has also been appointed your 
Secretary. 

" These appointments bear date on the 12th instant, and you 
will receive the formal commissions for yourself and Secretary by 
the next mail, as there is no time to make up the instructions for 
the present conveyance. 

" As your former commission (together with that of Mr. 
Macfarland) was for England only, it is considered as having 
come to an end, by your withdrawal under instructions, but your 
accounts for salary, contingent expenses, etc., will be rendered up 
to the 1 2th instant, and your salary under the new appointment 
will commence at this last named date. You are of course aware 
that this being a new appointment made during recess will expire 
at the close of the next session of the Senate if not confirmed by 
that body. The books which you were good enough to procure 
for the Department have at last arrived in Wilmington, but all the 



458 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



cases have not yet reached Richmond nor have any been opened. 
I doubt not, however, that they are all rig^ht. 
" I am, sir, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN." 

" Paris, 16 Rue de Marignon, 

January 13th, 1864. 

"My Very Dear Wife: It is now four months since the last 
dates from home, though I have written by each of the semi- 
monthly West India mails. And now letters have arrived here 
dated from the South in November and December, and still I have 
nothing. I can only hope for the best, and that you all remain as 
well and comfortable as I could wish you, or as the times will 
admit. 

" I told you in my last letters that I should remain in Europe, 
until I heard farther from the Government. A few days since I had 
a note from our commercial agent in London, quoting an extract 
from a letter from the Secretary of State of November 28th, con- 
veying a request to me that I would remain abroad, and that a 
dispatch was then on the way to me, but it has not yet arrived, 
so that I am still in doubt as to my future ; but my great concern 
is for you and the dear children under your charge. What a 
bright day it will be, when we are all once more reunited, and I 
feel the assurance of certainty that that day will yet come. 

" My agent in England wrote me some weeks since that he 
had sent you a parcel of supplies by a ship then about to sail, under 
a general order from me. He did not say what they were, but that 
they were in charge of Colonel White, of North Carolina. I hope 
they may reach you safely. 

" I am plodding on in this Babel, but with little in it to inter- 
est me, except a large circle of Confederates, embracing some 
very agreeable families, who intermingle very sociably. 

" I have told you that under most kind and hospitable invita- 
tion, I was the guest of Mr. and Mrs. Soutter, both Virginians, 
though now refugees from New York. I have a chamber and 
small parlor detached, and with a separate entrance, though under 
the same roof, and nothing ever can exceed their cordiality and 
kindness. They have two sons in the Southern army and two 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^tg 

daughters at home, both interesting and useful girls ; they write 
for me constantly. 

" I have seen nothing in Paris, except the streets, have not 
been to the theater or opera, or anywhere except once, to the 
corps Legislatif (the Chamber of Deputies) to hear their most 
celebrated orator. In truth I have not the heart or spirit to gaze 
after new things, or else I am getting too old for new excite- 
ments. 

" In all my letters, my dear wife, I have told you to call on 
our good friend Macfarland as before, whenever you want money, 
and not to be frightened at the large nominal sums in Confederate 
currency. His bill, I have told him, on my bankers, J. K. Gilliat 
& Company, London, will be paid as heretofore for my account. 

" My constant love to my dear Kate and her family, as well 
as to all the dear ones under your roof. 

" Always most affectionately yours, 

" J. M. MASON." 



460 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Makes Short Visit to London in Private Capacity — Southern Independence 
Association of London — Society for Promoting Cessation of Hostilities in 
America — Anti-Slavery Sentiment in England — Seizure of Tuscaloosa — 
Seal to be Made of Silver — Instructions for New Commission — President 
gives P^uUer Discretion as to Residence— Maximilian Visits Emperor — 
His Policy Towards Confederacy Changed after Reaching Paris — Release 
of Tuscaloosa — Mr. Seward admits the "Mallory Report" was a Forgery. 

Dispatch No i. 

" Office of Commissioner on the Continent, 

Paris, 16 Rue de Marignan, January 25th, 1864 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Your dispatch dated on the 30th of November uUmio, 
reached me here on the 20th of the present month ; and, as 
directed, the accounts of the Special Commission to Great Britain 
shall be closed as on the nth of November last, and those of the 
Commissioner on the Continent shall commence on the 12th of the 
same month, and stated to the 31st December last. These 
accounts, together v^dth those for the Contingent Fund, stated in 
like manner, shall be forwarded by the next mail to Bermuda, via 
Halifax. This goes by private opportunity just offering for 
Bermuda. 

" Commencing a new series of correspondence I shall make 
this Dispatch No. i. Yours to which it is in reply, is not marked. 
I shall treat it as your No. i unless there be a predecessor, in 
which case the number shall conform accordingly. 

" Unless instructions shall arrive inconsistent with it, I pro- 
pose to go, soon after the meeting of Parliament, to England, of 
course, in a private capacity, only ; and may remain there a few 
weeks. Parliament meets on the 4th of February. We have in it 
a body of earnest and sincere friends, some of whom have told me 
it would be very desirable to keep the public mind in England 
awake and informed on matters interesting to us ; though I am 
not aware of any reasons from which we may hope for any speedy 
action on the part of the Government. I could tell better, how- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^6 1 

ever, after a week or two in London ; and shall, of course, keep 
you advised. 

" As some evidence that we have earnest and active friends 
in high position there, I enclose a circular recently issued by 
the ' Southern Independence Association of London,' and which 
fully explains itself. With most of the members of the ' com- 
mittee ' I have a personal acquaintance, and am, with many of 
them, on terms of intimate relation. As of like character, I 
enclose, also, another circular just issued at London under aus- 
pices of which I am fully aware, by a Society for ' Promoting the 
Cessation of Hostilities in America,' which also discloses its 
objects. It is important to notice that both these movements are 
purely of English origin — their promoters indeed, have fully con- 
sulted with me; but not until after the respective plans were 
devised and, to some extent, matured by themselves. They are, 
really, as they import, views of Englishmen addressed to the 
English people, and in this light is to be received the concluding 
paragraph in the circular of the ' Southern Independence Asso- 
ciation of London.' 

" In my conversations with English gentlemen, I have found 
it was in vain to combat their sentiment. The so-called anti- 
slavery feeling seems to have become with them a sentiment akin 
to patriotism. I have always told them that in the South we 
could rely confidently, that after independence — when our people 
and theirs became better acquainted by direct communication — 
when they saw for themselves the true condition of the African 
servitude with us, the film would fall from their eyes; and that, 
in the meantime, it was not presumptuous in us to suppose that we 
knew better than they did what it became us to do in our affairs. 

" The German complication with Denmark which seemed 
imminently to threaten an European war, within the last day or 
two has given a better promise, by a request from the latter power 
to be allowed to assemble and consult with the Danish Legislative 
Assembly before giving a final answer to the Austro-Prussian 
ultimatum. The reply of the latter power is not yet known, but 
it can hardly be a refusal. Peace and repose in Europe is just 
now of great importance to us, while awaiting European recogni- 
tion. 

" On the subject of the Contingent Fund, the expenses in that 



^62 ^IFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



quarter are so moderate on comparing notes with Mr. Slidell, 
that there is no occasion for any addition. The instructions we 
brought with us confine this expenditure to Hmited objects, cer- 
tainly, very proper in ordinary times; but we both agree that 
there are objects of expenditure for political ends occasionally 
presenting themselves, when it would be well that the Commis- 
sioners in Europe should have a large discretion. This character 
of expenditure might admit of a regular voucher, but must be sub- 
mitted to the integrity of the Commissioner himself. It might be 
limited — say not to exceed three or four hundred pounds sterling 
in any one year. Occasions have presented themselves to me, 
when good, and not unfair, use to our cause could have been made 
of moderate sums. I venture to submit this to your consideration. 

" I have, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 2. 

" Commission to the Continent, 

" Paris, February 8th, 1864. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Parliament in England met on the 4th instant, and I 
enclose herewith the debate in each House on the Queen's 
Speech, which you may not otherwise obtain in extenso. I think 
it a matter of pregnant meaning that no reference was made in the 
speech to American affairs — the solution being (besides apathy or 
indifference in the Ministry) in the fact that the public mind of 
Europe is engrossed by European affairs, the principal being the 
complications in Germany. We have intelligence to-day that the 
Danes have retreated from Schleswig, leaving it entirely in the 
possession of the Austro-Prussian forces. Whether this will end 
the war remains to be seen ; but I think it strongly imports that 
other European powers will not be brought in. 

" I think the general tenor of the debate imports that the 
Opposition in England are preparing for an issue with the 
Ministry on their foreign poHcy, but the former are conscious of 
weakness and it may be that they will not attempt it. I can not 
see, therefore, any prospect of an early movement anywhere 
advantageous to us, unless it arise from agitations before the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^63 

people in England. In my last I spoke of the activity of our 
friends in that quarter. They are confident of good results ; and 
are sincere : but, at best, this must be the work of time. Having 
nothing particular to detain me here, I shall go over to England 
in a few days ; and my next, I hope, may give you further and 
encouraging accounts of prospects there. 

" I have the honor to transmit, also herewith, as directed in 
yours of the 30th November, my accounts for salary as Special 
Commissioner to Great Britain, and as Commissioner on the Con- 
tinent. These accounts show only the sums that I have received 
respectively, closing the Commission to England on the nth 
November last, and for the payment of a quarter as Commissioner 
on the Continent, terminating on the 31st December last. As 
directed by you, the drafts drawn on Messrs. Eraser, Trenholm & 
Company were in duplicate. In regard to the question of ex- 
change, it could apply only to the fragment of the quarter as 
Commissioner on the Continent, and, within the terms of your 
dispatch, upon actual sale of the drafts. To avoid complication, 
I did not sell the draft, but sent it to my bankers in London, 
simply to be collected and placed to my credit. 

" Eebruary 9TH. — I have, by mail to-day from London, re- 
ceived your Nos. 32 and 33, dated respectively the 13th and 14th 
November ultimo. Oblige me by expressing to the President my 
sincere sense of his kindness in the expressions you were author- 
ized to use in regard to my services in Europe. I can only regret 
that better opportunities have not offered to make them of real 
value. The new Commission to which you refer, with the in- 
structions, has not yet arrived. I can only say in the meantime 
that the latter shall be properly observed. 

" I am not a little surprised and mortified to learn from your 
No. 33, of the deficiency in the volumes of Hansard. The order 
for them came but two days before the sailing of the Halifax 
steamer, and I was thus obliged to trust to the accuracy of the 
booksellers, without a personal examination of the boxes ; but the 
house of Willis & Sotheran was of such standing and character 
that such extraordinary neglect could not have been anticipated. 
I shall at once communicate with them, and have the missing 
volumes supplied down to the latest issue of Hansard, to go by the 
Halifax steamer of the 20th of this month, by which mail I will, 
of course, write you. 



^64 ^^^^ 0^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" In regard to the Confederate Seal, the execution of which 
you placed in my charge, it is difificult to account for the delay in 
getting it finished. Before I left London, the design for it had 
been successfully completed by Mr. Harvey, an eminent sculptor ; 
who, at my request, undertook to have the Seal made by the most 
skillful artist. I have written twice to him since, but without 
answer. I will see further about it when in London, and hope 
soon to send it to you. 

" I have, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

" 24 Upper Seymour Street, 

" London, February i6th, 1864. 

"My Very Dear Wife: My last letters were from Paris, 
where I remained about three months, returning here the day 
before yesterday. I have written at least twice a month by the 
English mails to Bermuda, and Nassau alternately, since my first 
departure from England in September, yet I have no letter from 
home later than the 30th of August. In a dispatch from Mr. 
Benjamin of the 19th November, he was good enough to say that 
he had seen you a day or two before, and reported all well. I 
suppose I may put all this down to your uncertainty about my 
movements since I was dislocated. Yesterday, however, Mr. Law- 
ley, just returned, was good enough to call on me. He said that 
he saw you the day before he left Richmond, though I can not say 
I was entirely satisfied with the accounts he gave of your appear- 
ance as to health. Mr. Washington, who is either Assistant Sec- 
retary^ or Chief Clerk in the Department of State, is an earnest 
and kind friend of mine, and I think would be most likely to know 
when opportunity offered for letters to Bermuda or Nassau, and I 
am sure would aid you in their transmission. They should be 
sent to the care, at Bermuda, of Major N. T. Walker, agent of 
the Confederate States, or to Nassau, to the care of L. Hezliger, 
Esq., agent Confederate States. I hope indeed hereafter for more 
regular accounts. 

" Mr. Benjamin's late dispatch, which I am gratified to say, 
conveyed to me the President's entire approval of my conduct in 
the Commission to England, tells me that I have been appointed 
anew as ' Commissioner on the Continent,' which Commission, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



465 



with full instructions, will be sent by the following mail. They 
have not yet been received. 

" Being thus afloat, I came over to London, in a private 
capacity only, at the suggestion of many friends I have had the 
good fortune to make in England, to be present for conversation 
and to furnish information, after the meeting of Parliament ; how 
long I may remain must depend on events, chiefly on instructions 
I may get from home, but I think I may be of more service here in 
intercourse with public men in regard to affairs interesting to us, 
than I could be on the Continent. 

" When last in Paris, as I think I wrote you from there, I 
was the guest for the whole time of Mr. and Mrs. Soutter, both 
from Virginia, he from Norfolk, and his wife from Fredericks- 
burg. Their joint invitation was so cordial, frank, and sincere, 
that I felt at full liberty to accept it, and my residence with them 
took away all the dcsagrcmens of being left to a hotel, or the dreari- 
ness of apartments. I owe them much indeed for their grateful 
and graceful hospitality, the more easily acceptable to me, from a 
knowledge of their ample means. Their house was the rendezvous 
of all Confederates in Paris, especially of our officers, of whom 
we had many there, their doors always open, and their table 
always spread, our nephews Smith Lee, and Macomb Mason, with 
Pinckney I\Iason always amongst them. I have nothing to tell 
you that is hopeful of our prospects in Europe. England will do 
nothing that might by possibility offend the Yankees, and France 
will only move in unison with England. Still, there can be no 
mistake that with all classes in England which have opinion, their 
entire sympathy is with us. Societies are forming all through 
the kingdom, headed by noblemen and eminent public men, whose 
object is by public addresses, publications, etc., and by petitions to 
Parliament, to bring about a recognition of our independence. It 
is in these circles where I find that I can be of aid. * * * So 
far, my dear wife, I have availed myself of an amanuensis, and 
the character of my writing, I fear, shows its necessity. To-day, 
I saw Mr. Collie. He tells me that he sent to you some months 
ago a supply of flannel and such things. I hope they will reach 
you safely ; they will, at least), assure you I bear you all in mind. 
Mr. Lawley tells me that Enghsh merchandise of all kinds is 
abundant in Richmond, and although at nominal high prices, yet 



466 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



when difiference in exchange is computed, I suspect you can buy 
as (ieaply there as I can here, and avoid the great risk of entire 
loss in forcing the blockade. To show the difference in exchange, 
I have just paid a bill here drawn on me by Mr. Macfarland for 
£32. 3. 6 sterling, which at par is equal to about $175, but which 
he advises me yielded to you in Confederate currency, about 
$2,000. You may be satisfied therefore though you may pay high 
prices at home, to supply the means is not oppressive to me here, 
and I am economical in my expenses. 

" And now, my dear wife, farewell. My constant and sincere 
love to those with you. 

" Yours most affectionately, 

"J. M. M." 

Dispatch No. 3. 

" London, February i8th, 1864. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Since my arrival, we have had reported the seizure of 
the Confederate cruiser ' Tuscaloosa ' at the Cape of Good Hope 
by the Colonial authorities there, under instructions from the 
Government in England. Having no intercourse with the Foreign 
Office here, I addressed a note to Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, M. P., 
calling his attention to the report of it in the Times; and request- 
ing, if he saw no reason to the contrary, that he would make a 
call on the Government for information. I have had no reply, but 
on the i6th, the Earl of Carnarvon made the call in the House 
of Lords, in connection with other matters relating to the ' Ala- 
bama.' You will see Earl Russell's reply in the Times of the 17th, 
which I send herewith. It seems that he avows the instructions, 
but says it will be necessary to communicate with the Colonial 
authorities, before they could be laid before the House. This is 
certainly a most extraordinary aggression. The * Tuscaloosa,' as 
you are probably aware, was an enemy's ship captured by the 
* Alabama,' and fitted out as a cruiser under officers transferred 
from the latter. It is difficult to conjecture upon what grounds or 
pretexts instructions were issued from the Foreign Office author- 
izing her seizure ; nor were they disclosed by Earl Russell in 
debate. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



467 



" I can only say that the inquiry shall be followed up, so far 
as I can be instrumental by communication with our friends here 
in Parliament. I send, also, several late copies of the Times with 
the report made from the Cape of Good Hope. In this connection 
I do not know whether files of the English papers are received at 
the Department of State. If not;., would it not be as well that I 
should order them to be sent regularly by the semi-monthly mails 
via Nassau and Bermuda to our agents there, to be forwarded by 
them? If two, I should suggest the Times and the Morning 
Herald — the latter the organ of the Opposition. If three, the Post 
might be added — said to be the immediate organ of Lord Pal- 
merston. 

" These dispatches will be borne by Commander Maury ol 
the Navy, who is sent home by Commodore Barron, with the 
approbation of Mr. Slidell and myself, in order, personally, to 
communicate to the Navy Department full information in regard 
to the total failure of all efiforts to get out ships either from France 
or England. Mr. Slidell, who had full cognizance of all the 
machinery set to work in France, will, by his dispatch to go with 
this, have given you full information ; or, if lost, it will be fur- 
nished, orally, by Captain Maury. Suffice it to say here, the con- 
viction has been forced upon us that there remains no chance or 
hope of getting ships out either from England or France : and 
that, in consequence, those in prospect are to be disposed of in the 
best way that can be done. It is a painful disappointment, but I 
am satisfied that nothing was left undone to effect the object. 
From England we, long since, had nothing to expect — from 
France we had a right to entertain a belief in other results — why, 
Mr. Slidell's dispatches, or Captain Maury will explain. I confess 
that I can see neither excuse nor palliation in the defeat of our 
expectations in that quarter. 

" As my address in Europe may, for a time, be uncertain, 
perhaps it would be safe until further advice, to send my dis- 
patches to the care of Henry Hotze, Esq., whose address you 
have. 

* I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 



468 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Dispatch No. 4. 

" London, February i8th, 1864. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Referring to the concluding paragraphs in my No. 
2 from Paris, which goes b}^ the same conveyance as this, on my 
arrival in London four days ago, I called at the house of Willis 
and Sotheran and exhibited to them a copy of your dispatch No. 
33, of the 14th November, relating to the imperfect condition of 
the copy of ' Hansard ' which they had furnished, and asked 
for explanations. It required some time to examine the sub- 
jectt and they have just reported that the facts were as stated in 
your letter. In excuse they say ' the remaining volumes were 
at that time very imperfect, and some very difficult to procure, 
so that we only packed to the period that was perfect, viz. : 1853 
inclusive — the portion from the session 1854 to 1863 — which will 
complete the set, we hope to have from the binders within a week 
from this time, when they shall be carefully packed and dispatched 
without delay.' There is, certainly in all this, no excuse, at least, 
for their strange neglect in not informing me at the time, or 
since, of the deficiency in the number of volumes ; and stranger 
still this omission, when they were paid for the full set. I called 
their attention, too, to the difference between the price paid and 
that quoted in their catalogue, to which you referred, but their 
note not referring to it, I have again called their attention to it, 
and may have their reply in time for this dispatch, which goes 
off to-night. Although I went to them at once, on my arrival here, 
and urged dispatch, that the books might go by the Halifax 
steamer which bears this, it seems that it can not be effected. I 
shall be able to send them, however, I hope, by a steamer of 
Crenshaw's Line, to sail direct for Bermuda in course of ten days. 
After I get the affair ended, unless better explanation is made 
than yet afforded, I shall be cautious of this house hereafter. 

" In regard to the Seal, too, I have now a report from Mr. 
Foley, who, it seems, has been some time absent from London. 
He says that the artisan, Mr. Wyon, employed to engrave it, in- 
forms him that it will yet require six weeks or two months to finish 
it, ' as he is anxious,' he says, ' to bestow upon it all the pains 
so important a work demands. He is executing it in silver (the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^^Q 

metal the State Seals of England are executed in) which offers 
the advantage of proof against rnst so often destructive to a 
seal engraved in steel.' 

'' The above is from Mr. Foley's note from Dublin to me at 
Paris. He tells me further that the cost for engraving the Seal, 
including the press for working it, will be eighty guineas ; and 
that, as it is customary in England to receive half the amount 
on commencing the work, advises that I should conform, as it 
will at least prevent excuse for delay, and which I will do as 
soon as I can obtain the address of Mr. Wyon. 

" It occurs to me that I have no instructions from you as to 
sending the Seal over, and from its character, it appears to me 
that no risk whatever should be incurred in its getting into the 
hands of the enemy, which might happen, whatever precautions 
were taken here. As it may involve an additional delay of only 
a few weeks, I think I shall retain the Seal until further instruc- 
tions. 

" I have the honoi; to be, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 

Dispatch No. 34. 

"/. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State Confederate States, to J. M. 

Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Department of State, 
" Richmond, 25th January, 1864. 

" Sir : The near approach of the session of Congress 
induced me to defer forwarding your commission and instructions 
under the appointment communicated to you in November last, 
until the action of the Senate on your nomination. I have now 
the honor to inform you that you were, on the i8th instant, con- 
firmed by the Senate as Commissioner to represent the Confed- 
erate States to such foreign nations as the President might deem 
expedient,, under the act of Congress approved on the 20th 
August, 1 861, and your commission as such is herewith forwarded. 
It is accompanied by a commission for Mr. Macf arland, as your 
secretary, he having been nominated and confirmed as such on 
the 1 8th instant. 



470 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" The act under which you were appointed authorizes the 
President, as you will perceive, to accredit you to such foreign 
nations as he may deem expedient. At present we have in Europe 
but two Commissioners, Mr. Slidell accredited to Paris and 
Madrid, and Mr. Mann accredited to Belgium. It is not deemed 
necessary to associate an additional Commissioner with either of 
these gentlemen. 

" The considerations which have dictated your appointment 
are the following: 

" ' In the present disturbed condition of European affairs, 
when grave events seem pending and when new and unexpected 
relations may arise between the European powers, prudence re- 
quires that the interests of the Confederate States should not be 
left unrepresented during the delays incident to our present uncer- 
tain and tardy communication with Europe. If a general war 
should grow out of any one of the many disturbing causes which 
threaten the tranquility of Europe, it is not difficult to imagine 
that a representative of this Government, with adequate powers, 
might find occasion for acting with signal benefit to his country. 
On the other hand, if the Archduke Maximilian shall accept the 
Mexican throne, the interest which will naturally be felt by the 
Emperor of Austria in the fortunes of his brother, as well as 
the interest of the French Government, in the maintenance of 
their own work, suggest a series of contingencies, in any one of 
which it may be all-important that the Government should have 
discreet and able assistance at Vienna.' 

" The views of the President upon the subject of our future 
relations with our Southern neighbor have been fully developed in 
my recent correspondence with Mr. Slidell, and it will be well 
that you should make yourself acquainted with them, if indeed 
you have not, from your intimacy with him, already been 
apprised of all that has occurred. Although it now seems to us 
here most probable that your services may first be required in 
Austria, it is deemed more prudent to provide you with duplicate 
full powers, addressed in blank, that may be filled up by you 
in any contingency requiring your presence at more than one of 
the European courts. It might even happen that, by unfortunate 
calamity, the Government might be deprived of the services of 
Mr. Slidell at a critical moment requiring the presence of a pleni- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



471 



potentiary authorized to sign treaties or conventions that could 
not be postponed without hazard or even grave prejudice to our 
interests. The President will feel much more secure in the pro- 
vision which it is his duty to make for the safeguard of our inter- 
ests abroad when they are no longer dependent on the continued 
existence of a single public servant, however valuable he may be. 

" The discretion which he vests in you, therefore, is, as you 
perceive, very wide, and is intended to embrace unforeseen events 
which may render necessary prompt action by an accredited diplo- 
matic agent. 

" It is one which could only be warranted by his entire con- 
fidence in your prudence and discretion, and which he doubts not 
you will fully justify. 

" There is one point, however, on which it is perhaps neces- 
sary to be quite explicit. The President does not deem it, in the 
present advanced state of our struggle, either judicious or con- 
sistent with the dignity of our country, that there should be any 
addition to the number of our Commissioners occupying the posi- 
tion of accredited agents awaiting recognition at European courts. 

" It is not expected that you will present yourself at any 
court in such an attitude, nor that you will make any formal appli- 
cation for official reception as an accredited Commissioner, unless 
previously assured unofficially that your reception as such will 
at once be accorded. If, therefore, you find, at any time, that your 
presence at any capital or seat of government would be useful 
and probably productive of advantage, it is not expected by the 
President that you should reside there in any other capacity than 
as a private gentleman known to be in the confidence of his Gov- 
ernment, nor that you should remain there after satisfying your- 
self that the demand for an official audience to present your cre- 
dentials would, if made, be refused. 

" It is scarcely necessary to add that in regard to Great 
Britain you would be expected to await some intimation from 
that Government of its desire to enter into official relations with 
you, before again approaching it even in the most informal 
manner. 

" The President would also prefer that in the absence of such 
intimation you should refrain from visiting England even in a 



472 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



private capacity, unless some urgent necessity should compel 
your presence there. 

" I am, sir, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN. 
" P., S. — Please inform me of the prospects of getting the 
Seal of State. It ought surely to be ready by this time." 

Dispatch No. 35. 

" From J. P. Benjamin, Secretary State., to J. M. Mason, Commis- 
sioner Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Department of State, 
" Richmond, i8th April, 1864. 

" Sir : In the instructions which accompanied your com- 
mission, letters of credence, etc., under date of 25th January last, 
I intimated, by direction of the President, his preference that you 
should abstain from visiting London, even unofficially, unless 
some urgent necessity should arise. 

" His attention has been called by me to certain passages in 
your dispatches, as well as to intimations received by the Depart- 
ment from other sources, all indicating the probability that your 
presence in London at certain junctures, as a private gentleman 
called there by his personal interests, would be useful to our coun- 
try. The President, yielding to these suggestions, now directs me 
to say that he is content to leave this subject to your discretion, 
confident that you will do no act that could countenance the infer- 
ence of any intention on our part to withdraw from the position 
assumed towards the British Government when you were recalled 
from London. 

" I am obliged for your suggestion about furnishing me the 
London papers, but this was a matter with which I would not 
trouble you, and I have long been in receipt at the Department 
of the Times, the Saturday Review, Economist, and Examiner, 
as well as of the principal quarterly reviews, and Blackwoood's 
Magazine. I am thus enabled to obtain as lively an impression 
of the state and progress of public opinion in Great Britain on all 
matters connected with our interests as can be reached through 
the leading organs of the different political parties. The most 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



473 



striking articles from the Herald, Post, and other London dailies 
are cut out and forwarded by Mr. Hotze, and these suffice till the 
opening of our ports shall put us in possession of a line of regular 
mail steamers. 

" I am sorry to have given you so much trouble with the 
books for the Department, the more so as after all I have to 
announce the loss of all you sent except the two cases of ' Han- 
sard.' 

" The remaining cases, containing the annual register, etc., 
etc., were lost on the ' Hatfield,' after having been detained in 
Bermuda some six months before being shipped. 

" In relation to the Seal, it would be quite inconvenient to 
await the return of peace for its arrival, but of course every pre- 
caution must be used to avoid any worse disaster than its loss. 

" I incline to think that the best plan will be to entrust it 
to some discreet and careful officer of the navy or army who 
may have occasion to return to the Confederacy, with the most 
stringent directions for having it rpady to be thrown into the sea, 
should the danger of capture become imminent. By retaining 
the impression in England, its loss under such circumstances 
would involve nothing more than the mere cost of the Seal and 
the delay in having another made. There is nothing of general 
interest which I can communicate that you will not find in greater 
detail than I could give you in the files of Richmond papers 
which will accompany this. 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN." 

Dispatch No. 5. 

" London, March i6th, 1864. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I had the honor to receive yesterday from you five 
packets containing as follows : 

" I St. Commissions in duplicate and in blank as Commis- 
sioner, etc. 

" 2d. Letters of introduction to Ministers of Foreign 
Afifairs in duplicate and in blank, with two blank seals to be 
annexed. 



474 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" 3d. Special passports in duplicate. 

" 4th. Full powers as Commissioner in duplicate. 

" 5th. Your dispatch No. 34, dated the 25th Januar}^, 1864, 
containing instructions for my guidance under my new Commis- 
sion. 

" I beg to express my sense of gratitude to the President for 
the confidence he has reposed in me in regard to the exercise of 
the discretion left to me in the use of these commissions. The 
instructions are so explicit and definite that I apprehend no 
embarrassment in carrying them out in their exact spirit. Should 
a question arise, however, I shall have the able counsels of Mr, 
Slidell, the better to lead me to a satisfactory conclusion, 

" The present disturbed and unsettled condition of Europe 
makes it impossible to foresee what may be the solution of its 
complications so far as this Commission is involved — for the pres- 
ent we can only await events. 

" Should the Danish-Holstein question be adjusted in such 
a manner as to have the cordial support of Austria and Prussia, 
it is believed they will be in a position to repress further present 
enterprises of the other German powers, and the peace of Europe, 
for the present at least, be secured. Until such peaceful attitude be 
attained, it will be utterly impracticable, in my judgment, to fix 
the attention of European powers upon what it may become them 
to do in regard to relations with us. In regard to the new duties 
which are devolved upon me, I need hardly say that I shall take 
peculiar care, in no manner, to compromit the dignity of the Gov- 
ernment by any approach to any of those powers without previous 
distinct intimation of my reception. 

" In regard to Mexico, I much fear, from recent evidences, 
that the new Emperor will be as little disposed to enter into diplo- 
matic relations with us as is the controlling power on the Conti- 
nent, under whose auspices he is to be placed on the throne. There 
was reason to believe, from, sources entitled to full credit, that 
the Archduke had expressed himself, at one time, of opinion that 
amicable relations with us were of the last importance to the 
stability of his new Empire ; and he even desired, at once, to 
establish the necessary diplomatic intercourse. Before this reaches 
you you will have seen, through the public journals of the day, his 
recent visit to Paris as the guest of the Emperor. In a late note 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



475 



from Mr. Slidell, he informed me that he had been told by Mr. 
Estrada, chief of the Mexican Commission sent to offer to the 
Archduke the throne of Mexico, that the latter desired to see 
him (Mr. S.), and he might accordingly expect an invitation 
to an interview ; but such invitation did not come^, and the Arch- 
duke left Paris, Mr. Slidell not having seen or heard further 
from him. It had been previously strongly rumored in Paris 
that M. Mercier came from Washington authorized by President 
Lincoln to say to the Emperor that he, the President of the United 
States, would have his Minister accredited to the Emperor of 
Mexico, provided no negotiations for recognition of the Confed- 
erate Government were entertained by the latter ; and Mr. Slidell 
believes that it was under such influence, through the Emperor, 
that the mind and purpose of the Archduke was changed, after 
his arrival in Paris. Be this as it may, there can be no doubt 
that before he left Miramar, the Archduke clearly and distinctly 
declared a policy which looked to an immediate recognition and 
intimate relations between his Government, when established, and 
ours. I have deemed it proper to give you this much, even at 
second hand, though I doubt not the dispatches of Mr. Slidell, 
by same opportunity with this, will be fuller and more direct on 
this head. In a late letter from Mr. Fearn to Mr. Hotze, which 
the latter showed me (written, I think, from Nassau), Mr. F. 
spoke of being there with General Preston, on a mission which 
might result contingently on their going to Mexico. I am aware 
that Mr. Williams, of Tennessee, late United States Minister at 
Constantinople, who is now here, has written fully, both to the 
President and Colonel L. Q. C. Lamar, of his interviews with the 
Archduke at Miramar ; and of the views and opinions of this per- 
sonage in regard to future Mexican relations with us ; and I 
have thought it not improbable that the contingent mission of 
General Preston to Mexico had been founded on such information. 
Under these circumstances, and as at present advised, I shall 
suggest to Mr. Slidell whether his late experience with the 
Archduke, with whatever lights are before him, may not make 
it proper that he should communicate the apparent state of things 
to General Preston for his consideration, in event of his mission 
to Mexico being contingent upon previous intimation that he 
would be received. 



^7(5 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" In regard to the seizure of the Confederate cruiser ' Tus- 
caloosa,' at the Cape of Good Hope, spoken of in my No. 3, 
I have now further to report that some short time after its date, 
Earl Russell announced in the House of Lords that orders had 
been issued for her release, for the reason that her seizure had 
been authorized under a state of facts supposed to exist, which it 
was afterwards found did not exist. Some short time afterwards 
I was informed by Lieutenant Low, who commanded her, and 
who has arrived here, that after waiting three weeks, he deter- 
mined to discharge her crew and go to England with his officers, 
and that no one was left at the Cape authorized to receive the 
ship when released. As it was impracticable, even if thought 
judicious, again to man the ship where she was, I advised that 
things remain in statu quo, and the responsibility be left with 
the British Government what should become of her. Reporting 
this to Mr. Slidell and to Commodore Barron, they both con- 
curred that it was the best thing to do. Of course, the matter 
will be fully reported by the latter to the Navy Department. 

" These dispatches will be borne by Dr. Darby, of the Con- 
federate States Army, and I send by him Parliamentary Docu- 
ments Nos. I to 5 inclusive, containing correspondence relating 
to American affairs. At page 30 of No. 5 you will find a letter 
from Mr. Adams to Earl Russell, dated 19th January last, com- 
municating to him a copy of what he alleges to be ' the report 
of Mr. S. R. Mallory,' etc., etc., which ' report ' is printed at large 
on the preceding and same page. Mr. Adams, assuming this 
report to be genuine, bases upon it several specific demands for 
the • action of the British Government in regard thereto. Earl 
Russell, in his reply of the 8th February, accepts the 'report ' as 
genuine — speaks of the ' nature and importance of its admis- 
sions,' and informs Mr. Adams that ' Her Majesty's .Government 
have already taken steps to make the (Confederate) Govern- 
ment aware that such proceedings can not be tolerated,' etc. 

" This ' report ' had previously reached us through the 
Northern papers, and Captain Maury, then, as now, in England, 
had, by a letter in the Times, denounced it as a fabrication. I 
did not see the paper until a few days ago, when I received the 
Parliamentary Document. It bears intrinsic marks, which none 
conversant with the facts it profe«ses to recite can doubt, stamp 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^yy 

it as a forgery. We learn, too, by a note from Mr. Helm, at 
Havana, to Mr. Slidell, that the British Consul-General there, 
Mr. Crawford, had been ordered by his Government to proceed 
in a ship-of-war to one of our ports, on a mission to Richmond, 
I suppose of no very amicable character, based chiefly on the 
' admissions ' contained in this ' report,' 

" I have not, of course, in any manner, direct or indirect, 
approached the British Government since my recall from London ; 
but I have not hesitated whenever an occasion offered, whether 
on the Continent or here, to place some one of our real friends in 
Parliament in possession of any facts which inight be used to 
put the Government in the wrong in its offensive attitude toward 
us. Sa in regard to this fabricated report of Mr. Mallory — to 
say nothing of the incongruity of its being addressed to the 
Speaker of the House, the allegations it contains : First, in 
regard to the capture and condition of the ' Harriet Lane ' ; 2d, to 
the attack of our ironclads upon the blockading fleet off Charles- 
ton ; 3, the statement that the ' Nashville ' was a Confederate ship 
at the time she was destroyed near Savannah ; 4th, what was 
said of the recapture of the ' Queen of the West,' and that her 
commander had been cashiered and dismissed from the service ; 
and 5th, the statement in regard to the capture of the ' Caleb 
Gushing ' by the ' Tacony,' are all such manifest departures from 
the truth, and so plainly proved the fabrication, that I brought 
the matter to the direct notice of Commodore Barron, and have 
obtained from him the written statements of several officers now 
in France, personally conversant with the facts in each case 
respectively, fully establishing their falsity ; and it is my purpose 
to make all this fully known to Lord' Robert Cecil, a member of the 
House of Commons of admitted influence and ability, and one 
of our most earnest and decided friends, for such use as he may 
think proper to make of it. Should the mission of Mr. Craw- 
ford be admitted at Richmond, the fact of this impudent forgery 
will be officially made known to Her Majesty's Government. 
My communications to Lord Robert "Cecil will prepare our friends 
here for any steps they may deem proper in the meantime. 

" I have not, since I last came to England, been at either 
House of Parliament, or in any public assemblage, nor have I 
reason to believe that my being here was known to any but a 



^y8 ^IFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

few private friends. It was my intention to return to the Con- 
tinent about this time, now confirmed, of course, on learning that 
the President would prefer that I should not visit England unless 
on an occasion of real urgency. 

" I shall return to Paris in the course of a very few days, 
and remain there, or elsewhere, unofficially, on the Continent. 
Until located, dispatches will always best reach me, as heretofore, 
addressed to the care of Henry Hotze, Esq. 

" Since writing the foregoing, I have seen and conversed 
with Mr. Ward, just here from the Confederacy. He told me of 
all that he learned from you in regard to General Preston's mis- 
sion to Mexico. Mr. Ward goes to-night to Paris, and I have 
requested him to see Mr, Slidell on his arrival, and to tell him 
what he knows about the mission for his better guidance, in case 
Mr. Slidell should think it advisable to write to General Preston. 
" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 

" P. S. — 1 ship through Fraser, Trenholm and Company, of 
Liverpool, on the British mail steamer which leaves the day after 
to-morrow for Bermuda, addressed to Major N. S. Walker, with 
your initials marked on it, a box containing the missing volumes 
of ' Hansard.' They make the set entire, including the last 
volume issued. The booksellers excuse their apparent remiss- 
ness by saying that at the time of the first shipment of ' Hansard * 
they were unable to obtain the volumes now sent^ and then, time 
was required in having them uniformly bound. Their real fault 
was in not apprising me of the deficiency at the time. 

" I send, also, the Statesman's Year-Book for 1864, a very 
compendious and useful volume, published for the first time this 
year ; also, the British Almanac and Companion for the year. I 
think you will find them useful in the Department. 

" I am surprised and concerned at learning that the boxes 
containing the Annual Register, etc., had never reached you nor 
been heard of. In a previous dispatch I advised you that in 
obedience to your instructions at the time, they were sent for 
shipment to Fraser, Trenholm and Company, at Liverpool, in 
June last, and I have their letter acknowledging the receipt of the 
boxes, and advising that they would be shipped by the Cunard 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^yg 

line, sailing on that month for Bermuda, via Halifax. I have 
written to Major Walker, by mail bearing this, advising him of the 
new shipment, of which you are notified above, and calling his 
attention to the loss of the boxes shipped in June last, giving him 
the facts in regard to their shipment, and asking that he would 
make diligent search and inquiry for them, and let me know the 
result. I fear they have been lost in transitu between Bermuda 
and the Confederacy ; but Major Walker should know that. 

" I have no further information to give about the Seal in 
addition to what is stated in my No. 4, of which duplicate here- 
with. When I leave England it shall be committed to the special 
charge of Mr. Hotze. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

The following dispatch from Mr. Seward to the United States 
Minister in London claims a place in the these records in connec- 
tion with the foregoing denunciation of the " Forgery." It is 
here copied from the Diplomatic Correspondence of the United 
States Government, 1864, pt. i, p. 46. 

" Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams. 

Department of State, 

" Washington, December 20th, 1863. 

" Sir : I send herewith a copy, which has accidentally 
attracted my notice, of what purports to be an extract from an 
annual report of S. R. Mallory, who is pretending to act as 
Secretary of the Navy for the insurgents at Richmond. So soon 
as I can lay my hand on a full copy of that paper I shall transmit 
it. In the meantime, it is proper to say that I have not the least 
doubt that the extract now sent is authentic, 

" It boldly avows the authority and activity of the insur- 
gents at Richmond in the building of the rams in Great Britain 
and France on their own account, and for their use in making 
war from British and French ports against the United States. 

" Secondly. — It avows, with equal boldness and directness, 
the sending of twenty-seven so-called commissioned officers and 
forty reliable petty officers from Richmond to the British North 
American provinces, to organize an expedition from thence to 
cooperate with the so-called army officers, in making war against 



480 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



the United States on our northern border lakes. And it con- 
fesses that this expedition has only been defeated through the 
watchfulness of the British provincial authorities. 

" Thirdly. — In connection with these two avowals, the 
same conspirator says that he has sent another courier with in- 
structions, which will shortly be made apparent to the enemies of 
the insurgents nearer home, which may possibly mean instructions 
under which the actors in the piracy and murder lately committed 
on board the ' Chesapeake ' proceeded in that criminal enterprise 
from and returned to the British provinces of New Brunswick 
and Nova Scotia. 

" You will lose no time in laying this information before Earl 
Russell, and you will submit to him, as the opinion of this Govern- 
ment, that the proof thus furnished is sufificient to remove all 
doubt that might yet be lingering over the objects, character, 
and designs of the builders of the steam rams which Her Majesty's 
Government has recently detained in the British ports upon your 
representation. 

" Secondly. — In the opinion of this Government, a toleration 
in Great Britain, or in those provinces, of the practices avowed 
by the insurgents, after the knowledge of them now communicated 
to his Lordship, would not be neutrality, but would be a permis- 
sion to the enemies of the United States to make war against 
them from the British shores. 

" Thirdly. — It is the opinion of this Government that to 
tolerate in the British realm or provinces, without some restraint, 
these avowed enemies of the United States, while carrying on the 
hostile practices now avowed, after the knowledge herein com- 
municated, would not be an exercise of the unquestioned right of 
sheltering political exiles, but would be permitting them to use the 
British soil and British waters, and British vessels and arma- 
ments, to wage war against a country with whom Great Britain 
is at peace. 

" Fourthly. — That in the opinion of this Government it 
is the design of the Confederates in these proceedings to involve 
Great Britain in a war with the United States, and, at least, that 
they have a direct tendency to produce that evil, which is 
mutually to be deprecated by both nations. 

" Fifthly. — This Government has borne itself towards that 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



481 



of Great Britain under these annoyances in the spirit and in the 
manner that have been best calculated to defeat the wicked design 
of the insurgents, without giving cause of offence or irritation to 
the British people. 

" Sixthly. — That these new difficulties occur most unseason- 
ably, and at a time when the Congress of the United States are 
considering the question of legally terminating the so-called 
reciprocity convention which regulates the commercial intercourse 
between this country and the British North American provinces — 
a question of deep interest to the whole British Empire. 

" The President wishes that he was able to suggest to Her 
Majesty's Government any adequate remedy for the deplorable 
state of things to which I have referred, not inconsistent with the 
policy that Great Britain has adopted in regard to this insurrection. 
But, in the opinion of this Government, that state of things has 
resulted, although unintentionally and unexpectedly on the part of 
Her Majesty's Government, from that very policy itself. The 
recognition of the insurgents, without navy, ports, courts, or 
coasts, as a belligerent naval power, was deemed by them, and 
by ill-disposed British subjects conspiring with the insurgents,^ 
as an invitation to them to use British ports, navy, courts, and 
coasts, to make themselves the naval power they are acknowledged 
to be, and yet are not. 

" Indications of popular favor towards this design of the 
insurgents are not wanting in British communities. If we cor- 
rectly understand occurrences of the hour, there are not only in 
the British provinces, but also in the British realm, and in its very 
Parliament, many persons who are engaged in advancing that 
design, or who at least are pursuing practices which they must 
well know necessarily tend to exhaust the patience of the United 
States, anH to provoke our citizens, in self-defence, either to seek 
their avowed enemies within British jurisdiction, or to adopt 
some other form of retaliation. It must be manifest that this 
Government can do nothing more to prevent that design than it 
has already done. If it is to be prevented, it would seem that 
something further than what has yet been done must now be done 
by Her Majesty's Government. 

" After making these frank explanations to Earl Russell, 
in the spirit of perfect friendliness, and in the most respectful 



482 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



manner, you will, for the present, leave the whole subject for 
his just consideration. 

" I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

" WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
"' Charles Francis Adams, Esq., etc., etc., etc." 

The substance of this dispatch was repeated in Mr. Adams'i. 
communication to Earl Russell, that enclosed the following paper: 

Report of the Secretary of the Confederate Navy. 
"Hon. T. S. Bocock, 

" Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
" Confederate States of America. 

" Sir : I have the honor to submit herewith my third annual 
report of the condition of this Department. The operations of 
this branch of the Confederate service have been chiefly con- 
lined to preparations for ridding our waters of the enemy's vessels 
now blockading our seaports. We have also been engaged in 
building, arming, and equipping ironclads and other steamers for 
service in our rivers and inland sounds. On the Mississippi, 
many of these vessels have done valuable service to our cause, 
while others, not yet completed, were either captured by the enemy 
or burned by our officers to prevent them from falling into the 
hands of the United States forces. On the ist of January, some of 
our naval officers manned a steamer and two schooners, in which 
they sailed forth from the harbor of Galveston and captured the 
United States gunboat ' Harriet Lane,' safely withdrawing her 
out of the reach of the other United States vessels then block- 
ading that port. 

" The ' Harriet Lane ' has since been put in complete order, 
and has on board a sufficient number of officers and men ready 
for an opportunity to distinguish themselves. Owing to the 
vigilance of the enemy, I have not deemed it advisable to give 
orders for this vessel to attempt any offensive operations. In 
accordance with my instructions, the Confederate steamer 
' Florida ' successfully ran the blockade from Mobile on the 13th 
of January, since which time she has been engaged in operations 
against the commerce of the enemy, capturing and destroying 
vessels and property amounting already to several millions of 
dollars. On the _i7th of the same month, the 'Alabama' destroyed 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



483 



the United States gunboat ' Hatteras', in the Gulf of Mexico, for 

which daring exploit her commander deserves the thanks of the 
Congress. On the 31st of the same month, three of our ironclad 
steamers, officered and manned by some of the bravest men of 
our navy, succeeded in inflicting serious injury upon the block- 
ading fleet off Charleston harbor. Two of the enemy's vessels 
w-ere disabled, and although one of them surrendered, we were 
unable to secure the fruits of this victory, owing to the injury 
sustained by our own vessels by the collision that occurred. 

" Had the commander of this expedition been careful to 
strike the enemy amidships, his vessel would have remained un- 
injured, and our victory would have been complete. I had 
ordered a crew to be detached for service on the steamer ' Nash- 
ville,' desiring to use her for the purpose of harassing the 
enemy while erecting batteries at the mouth of the Ogechee 
River, but fortunately she was destroyed by the enemy before 
my plans were carried out. On the i6th of April the ram 
' Queen of the West,' which we had captured from the enemy, 
was recaptured, and her officers and crew, numbering one hundred 
and twenty persons, made prisoners. This occurrence was the 
result of carelessness on the part of her commander, who has since 
been cashiered and dismissed from the service. During the months 
of May and June, our gunboats on the Western waters actively 
cooperated with our land forces, and although operating under 
many disadvantages, many gallant exploits were performed by 
their officers and crews. 

" Owing to the evacuation of Vicksburg and the surrender of 
Port Hudson, I deemed it advisable to give orders to withdraw 
all our vessels in that region to safe and secure harbors, and cease 
the construction of those contracted for, the machinery for which 
was being transported to the several depots. Some of this 
machinery is now stored at various points, and as it seems unlikely 
to be required for service at the West, and is unsuitable for use 
elsewhere, I suggest that it be sold, and the proceeds applied to 
other purposes. On the seas some of our small privateers have 
inflicted considerable injury upon the enemy's commerce. The 
' Tacony ' entered the harbor of Portland, and captured the United 
States revenue cutter ' Caleb Cushing.' Owing to the ignorance 
of the harbor, our officers were unable to take the ' Cushing ' out 



^84 ^^^^ 0^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



to sea, and she was again recaptured on the 27th of June by 
vessels sent in pursuit. Her crew were made prisoners. 

" During the months of July and August, I sent twenty-seven 
commissioned officers and forty trustworthy petty officers to the 
British provinces, with orders to organize an expedition and to 
cooperate with army officers in an attempt to release the Con- 
federate prisoners confined on Johnson's Island in Lake Erie. 

" From time to time I learned that the arrangements made 
were such as to insure the most complete success. A large amount 
of money had been expended, and just as our gallant naval officers 
were about to set sail on this expedition, the English authorities 
gave information to the enemy, and thus prevented the execution 
of one of the best planned enterprises of the present war. In 
accordance with the order of the President, early in the present 
year, I dispatched several agents to England and France, with 
orders to contract for eight ironclad vessels suitable for ocean ser- 
vice and calculated to resist the ordinary armament of the wooden 
vessels of the enemy. These ships were to be provided with rams, 
and designed expressly to break the blockade of such of the ports 
as were not blockaded by the ironclad monitors of the enemy. Five 
of these vessels were contracted for in England and three in 
France. Due precautions were taken against contravening the laws 
of England in the construction and equipment of these vessels. 
Three have been completed, but owing to the unfriendly construc- 
tion of her neutrality laws, the Government of England stationed 
several war vessels at the mouth of the Mersey, and prevented 
their departure from England. Subsequently they were seized by 
the British Government. Another and larger vessel has since 
been completed, but it is doubtful if she will be allowed to leave 
the shores of England, although it is believed the precautions 
taken are sufficient to exempt her from the fate of her consorts. 
The vessels being constructed in France have been subjected to so 
many official visitations that I have forwarded instructions to cease 
operations upon them until the result of negotiations now pend- 
ing shall permit our agent to resume work upon them. In this 
connection, it is proper for me to state that the great revulsion in 
popular sentiment, both in England and France, towards the Con- 
federate Government has rendered our efforts to obtain supplies 
from those countries almost abortive. In view of all possible 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



485 



contingencies, I have instructed the agents of this Department 
to await a more favorable opportunity for carrying out the in- 
structions previously forwarded. By the last I sent instructions 
that will shortly be made apparent to our enemies near home. 
I do not deem it advisable to communicate any portion of these 
plans to your honorable body at the present time, for reasons 
perfectly satisfactory to the President. 

" Although the operations of our navy have not been exten- 
sive, I can not overlook the services of Captain Semmes in the 
' Alabama.' During the year he has captured upwards of ninety 
vessels, seventy of which were destroyed, the others being either 
bonded or released. One of the greatest drawbacks this officer 
reports having experienced is the difficulty he now has in procur- 
ing full supplies of coal. The provincial English authorities 
have hitherto afforded him every facility, but recently they have 
interpreted their neutrality laws so stringently that our war vessels 
and privateers are much embarrassed in obtaining supplies. I 
have instructed Captain Semmes to purchase coal from neutral 
shipmasters wherever he found it and give them every necessary 
document to protect them against the effects such sale may have 
upon their vessels when they return to their several countries. 
By this means I anticipate a sufficient supply of coal will be 
obtained to ewable him to continue his operations during the 
coming year. 

" The other operations of this Department have been chiefly 
confined to making such preparations for naval operations as 
circumstances might permit. From time to time I have caused 
surveys to be made upon steamers running the blockade, with 
a view of purchasing such as could be made available as war- 
vessels. Several have been bought and are now being trans- 
formed into ships of war. 

" For the arn>ament of these vessels it will be necessary that 
Congress should make an additional appropriation. Appropria- 
tions will also be required to conduct our naval operations dur- 
ing the coming year. The estimated expenditure of the Depart- 
ment for the fiscal year ending July i, 1864, will amount to 
$27,249,890, in addition to $14,024,016 remaining to the credit 
of this Department in the Treasury. Since my last annual report, 
the expenditures for the navy have been $24,413,645. The busi- 



486 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



ness transacted during the year in this Department has kept my 
very large clerical force so constantly engaged that from time to 
time I have ordered a number of naval officers to assist them in 
duties not properly devolving upon them. This course occasions 
so much dissatisfaction that I trust Congresss will make such 
additions to my official stafif as shall enable me to permit all our 
naval officers to resume their respective positions. The great 
disproportion of officers in our service to the seamen enrolled is 
a matter requiring the legislation of Congress. The number of 
commanders now on active service^ either at sea or on shore, 
remains the same as previously reported. 

" Many of those occupying a lower grade in the service have 
volunteered in the army, owing to their desire to be actively 
employed against the enemy. I have not accepted the resigna- 
tions of these gentlemen, but furnished them with temporary 
absences, until I can recall them for the performance of other 
duties. I have considered it important to keep the roll as com- 
plete as possible, therefore, when I have been notified of the 
death of any naval officer, serving in the army* I have appointed 
his successor. The total number of commissioned officers at 
present attached to the Confederate Army is 383. The petty 
officers number 191, while the roll of sailors gives a return of 
877, not including those on board of vessels now at sea, accurate 
rolls not having been transmitted. 

" In conclusion, I must add my testimony to the gallantry 
and efficiency of oiir navy, who have nobly sustained our cause 
under many trying circumstances. The proud spirit of our 
officers chafes at the inaction they are compelled to endure, and 
I trust that Congress will make provision for increasing the 
efficiency of this Department, and permitting it to undertake 
more offensive operations against the enemy. In conclusion, I 
would recommend the immediate passing of an act authorizing 
the construction of at least six turreted ironclads for harbor 
operations. The experience of the past year has demonstrated 
that such vessels are absolutely necessary if we expect to break 
through and destroy the blockade at present established by the 
enemy. Attached to this communication, I have the honor to 
submit the various reports of different commanders and officers 
sent upon detached duty, together with the reports of naval agents 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



487 



and other officers, at home and abroad, who have been engaged 
on duty connected with this Department. 

" All of which is respectfully submitted. 

" (Signed), S. R. MALLORY, 

" Secretary of the Navy." 



No. 28. 

" Earl Russell to Mr. Adams. 

" Foreign Office, February 8th, 1864. 

" Sir : Her Majesty's Government have had under considera- 
tion the representations contained in your letter of the 19th ultimo, 
with regard to the alleged use of British territory for belligerent 
purposes by the Government of the so-styled Confederate States, 
as shown in the report of the Confederate Secretary of the Navy, 
Mr. Mallory, of which you enclosed a copy. I have now to state 
to you that this document appears to Her Majesty's Government 
to contain the strongest proof, if any were wanted, that they have 
endeavored in good faith to observe strictly and impartially, 
under circumstances of no small difficulty, the obligations of 
neutrality which they have undertaken, and that the practical 
effect of their doing so has been advantageous in no slight degree 
to the more powerful of the two belligerents, namely, the United 
States. 

" What is termed in Mr. Mallory's report ' the unfriendly 
construction of Her Majesty's laws,' is therein made a matter of 
grave complaint against England by the Government of the so- 
styled Confederate States, while to the same cause is ascribed the 
fact that those States have been prevented from obtaining the 
services of the greater part of a formidable war fleet which they 
had desired to create. 

" Her Majesty's Government are fully sensible of the nature 
and importance of the admissions made in Mr. Mallory's report 
of the endeavors of the Government of the so-styled Confederate 
States, by their agents in this country and in Canada, to violate 
in various ways Her Majesty's neutrality. 

" Her Majesty's Government have already taken steps to 
make that Government aware that such proceedings can not be 



4S8 



LIFE, OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



tolerated, and Her Majesty's Government will not fail to give 
to these admissions, to which you have invited their attention, 
the consideration which they undoubtedly deserye. 

" There is, however, one passage in your letter which it is 
impossible for Her Majesty's Government to pass over without 
special notice. This passage is as follows : ' I am further 
directed respectfully to represent that the toleration of these 
avowed enemies of the United States, whilst known to be carry- 
ing on these hostile practices, now fully revealed, within the 
British realm and its dependencies, without restraint of any kind, 
can not be regarded as an exercise of the unquestioned right 
of sheltering political exiles, but rather as equivalent to permitting 
them to abuse that right for the purpose of more effectually avail- 
ing themselves of British aid and cooperation now notoriously 
given them in waging war with a country with which Great 
Britain is at peace.' 

" In reply to this allegation. Her Majesty's Government 
think it right to state that Her Majesty's dominions must neces- 
sarily continue to be open to the subjects of both belligerents 
as long as Her Majesty is at peace with both of them, but that 
Her Majesty's Government will, at the same time, continue to put 
in force, as they have hitherto done, to the full extent of the 
means in their power, the laws of this country against those 
subjects of either of the belligerents who may be found, by trans- 
gressing those laws, to have abused the rights of hospitality and 
to have offended against the authority of the Crown. 

" With regard to its being made a matter of complaint by 
the Government of the United States, that Her Majesty's Gov- 
ernment thought fit, upon the original commencement of hostili- 
ties, to recognize the status of belligerents in both the parties 
to this unhappy contest. Her Majesty's Government can only 
repeat the observation which they have had occasion to make on 
former occasions in reply to similar representations received horn 
you, that any other course would have justly exposed this 
country to a charge of violating the clearest principles and 
soundest precedents of international law. 

" I am, etc., 

" RUSSELL." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^8q 

On February first, Mr. Seward writes to Mr. Adams : 
" Nothing has occurred here to raise a doubt as to the authenticity 
of the report of S. R. Mallory. It has internal evidences of 
genuineness, although it is wonderful that such a paper should 
have been promulgated." 

Again, on March 3d, he writes : " I have already informed 
you that Mr. Maury's denial of the authenticity of the report 
signed by Mr. Mallory is not here deemed sufficient to discredit 
the publication." Yet, on March 22, Lord Lyons, Minister from 
England to the United States, sends to his Government the infor- 
mation that Mr. Seward had, on March 19th, admitted the paper 
had been " a forgery." 

"Lord Lyons to Earl Russell. 

" Washington, March 22d, 1864. 

"My Lord: In my dispatch of the 31st December last, I 
enclosed an extract from a newspaper containing what purported 
to be a copy of a report of Mr. Mallory, the Confederate Sec- 
retary of the Navy. Your Lordship will recollect that the sup- 
posed report contained passages avowing the attempts to organize 
an invasion of the United States from Canada, and giving details 
with regards to ships of war stated to be building for the Con- 
federate Government in England and France. Some stress has, 
as your Lordship is aware, been laid upon this document by Mr. 
Seward in his communications on the two subjects mentioned. 
After alluding to the importance which he had attached to it, Mr. 
Sev/ard said to me on the 19th instant, that he felt bound to tell 
me that he had just discovered that it was a forgery. He said 
he had taken considerable pains to discover whether it was 
authentic when it first appeared, and although he had been unable 
to procure any Southern paper containing it, he had quite satisfied 
himself that it was genuine. Recently, however, the person by 
whom it had been concocted, hearing of his inquiries about it, 
had thought it right to let him know that it had been published 
originally as a mere jeu d'esprit, and that partly the amusement 
which it had afforded to see every one taken in by it, and partly 
the notion that it was injuring the Confederate cause, had pre- 
vented an earlier avowal of the truth. Mr. Seward stated that 
it was very remarkable that no disavowal of the supposed report 



490 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



had, so far as he knew, appeared in the Southern newspapers. 
Its authenticity had indeed been denied by Captain Maury, in 
England, but Captain Maury might not have had the means of 
knowing for certain whether it was really authentic or not. 
There was, however, now no doubt, Mr. Seward said, that it was a 
forgery. 

" I have the honor to be^ etc., 

"LYONS." 

Later still, viz. : on April 4th, Mr. Adams writes to Earl 
Russell: " I have the honor to apprise you that I have just re- 
ceived a dispatch from Mr. Seward, informing me that after the 
most diligent inquiries it has been ascertained that the supposed 
report is admitted by the editor of the New York Sun to have 
been prepared for the columns of that newspaper, in which it 
first appeared." The document had, in the meantime, accom- 
plished the desired effect upon the English Government. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



4QI 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Letter to Mrs. Mason — Case of the "Gerrity" — Additional Forgery by the 
United States Government — Counsel Provided for Men of the " Gerrity "— 
Court of Queen's Bench Decide "It was not Piracy" — Men Released— 
Mr. Lindsay's Motion Looking to Mediation — Mr. Lindsay Proposes In- 
terview with Lord Palmerston— Mr. Mason Declines it Unless Invited by 
Lord Palmerston — Lord Palmerston Expresses Opinion that South Could 
not be Subjugated — Mr. M. Visits London as a "Private Gentleman" in 
Response to the Request of Friends of the Confederacy that He Would 
Come to Their Aid — Lord Russell Expresses Opinion North Could not 
Overcome South, and People of North were Getting Alive to that Fact — 
Mr. D' Israeli says in Case of Success in Battles at Richmond, He Would 
Bring a Motion of Like Character With Mr. Lindsay's — Popular Senti- 
ment in England Strongly With South — Letters to Mrs. Mason — Seal sent 
by Lieutenant Chapman — Fight Between the Alabama and the Kearsage — 
Public Dinner Tendered Captain Semmes in London — All Europe Filled 
with the Fame of Lee, Beauregard, and Johnston — Interview with Lord 
Palmerston — Lieutenant Chapman Delivers Seal of Secretary of State, 
but Boxes Containing Iron-press, Wax, Etc., Lost — Private Letters — 
Bazaar In Liverpool, to Relieve Wants of Southern Prisoners Confined in 
the North. 

" Paris, i6 Rue de Marignan, April 12th, 1864. 
" My Dear Wife: In former letters I have told you that 
whilst in Paris I was the guest of Mr, and Mrs. Soutter, for- 
merly of Virginia. Coming back from London some ten days 
ago, I am again under their hospitable roof, and am indebted to 
Miss Lilie Soutter as amanuensis for this letter. * * i have 
been gratified indeed to find from both your letter and Vs. that 
malgre the privations incident to the war, you remain, at least, 
in comparative comfort in your new home, and that things are not 
so bad in Richmond, or with the army as the Yankees represent 
them, and would have them to be. * * The reports you give of 
the noble and courageous bearing of our friends in Winchester 
interested me deeply, particularly of Mrs. Boyd and Mrs. Conrad. 
They are striking instances of the great truth that the occasion 
illustrates the man. When you are again communicating with our 
friends in that quarter, I beg you will say how sincerely I have 
sympathized with them in all their severe trials and how much 
gratified I have been at the great examples they have shown to 
their country. Always bear in mind that next to direct accounts 
from our own circle at Richmond, nothing from home interests me 



492 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



more than to hear minutely of the valued friends we left in Win- 
chester, and of the welfare and condition of each of them. 

" Do you hear of Dr. Stuart Baldwin and his family ? What 
has become of James Marshall and Sherrard ? John Page ? George 
Burwell, who, I understand, were refugees? and Angus Mc- 
Donald? I hope he has been restored to better health. I must 
conclude this, I fear, dull letter, with best love to Maria and 
Nannie, to Kate and the girls, and to all the grandchildren. 
Yours, my ever dear wife, 

" Most affectionately, 

" J. M. M." 

Dispatch No. 7. 

" Paris, April 12th, 1864. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

"Sir: I returned to Paris soon after the date of my last, 
and have had nothing from the Department since your dispatches, 
acknowledged in my No. 5, of date 25th January last. 

" In my No. 5, and doubtless, also, in those of same date 
from Mr. Slidell, you will have learned the change that came over 
the aspect of our hoped-for relations with Mexico ; and I was, in 
consequence, gratified to learn, both from your instructions to 
General Preston and by letter from that gentleman to Mr. Slidell, 
that he was not to present himself in Mexico under any uncer- 
tainty about his reception. The policy of the Emperor here, always 
mysterious, has had certainly that feature in regard to our affairs 
— whatever the motive, the result remains the same. With fairest 
professions, even sedulously made, I look now for no movement 
of any kind, in that quarter, of value to us. Thanks to the spirit 
of our people, and the gallantry of our troops, under whatever loss 
and suffering, we can yet, unaided, work out our own salvation. 

" Some days since I received a letter from Messrs. Snowball 
and Copeman, solicitors at Liverpool, in regard to three men 
named Patrick Loonan, alias Ferrand, alias Clements, George 
McMurdock, and Quincy Sears, arrested there at the instance of 
the United States Consul on a charge of piracy, and claimed for 
extradition under the treaty. These'"-^^^ were of those who, 
under a Captain Hogg, embarked as passeiigers at Matamoras, on 
board the steamer J. L. Gerrity, seized her on her voyage to New 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



493 



York, overpowering the captain and crew, and carried her to 
BeHze, where Captain Hogg, it would appear, disposed of her 
cargo. The solicitors wrote me that they claimed to be citizens of 
the Confederate States, and had been in the Confederate Army — 
that they were enlisted by Captain Hogg, for service intended on 
board the ' Gerrity ' — and that the latter had some authority or 
commission for the enterprise from General Bee, in Texas. Seeing 
what had been done by the Department of State in the case of the 
' Chesapeake,' and having the benefit of your instructions to Mr. 
Holcombe, sent as Commissioner for that case to Halifax. I 
requested Captain Bullock, at Liverpool, to examine into the case 
of these men, and particularly whether they were citizens of our 
country, and under what orders they acted. It appears they came 
to Liverpool as seafaring men from Belize, and, as was to be 
expected, without papers or other proofs as to citizenship. 
Captain Bullock, however, reported that from the best information 
he could obtain, Loonan was an Englishman who had been in 
the Confederate army ; Murdock, British-born,, but naturalized in 
Virginia, and Sears, a native of Alabama. Looking to the 
action of the Department taken in the case of the captors of the 
' Chesapeake,' I thought it would be the safer course, at least, 
to take care that these men should be properly defended, and 
wrote accordingly to these solicitors, sending them a copy of so 
much of your instructions to Mr. Holcombe as would apply to 
the case, and directing them to take care that the defence was con- 
ducted in the best manner for the safety of the men. I was more 
induced to do this because I learned from Major Magruder, 
nephew and aide-de-camp of General Magruder, who was here 
some time since, that he met with Captain Hogg at Matamoras 
shortly before the ' Gerrity ' affair — that he was an officer of the 
Confederate army, and had the reputation of great daring and 
courage — then disabled by wounds received in the service. I 
told the solicitors that I would commit the Government for reason- 
able expense of the defence, and I must defray it out of the Con- 
tingent Fund. This, I hope, will have the approbation of the 
Department. 

" In regard to the spurious ' Report ' of Mr. Mallory, as 
Secretary of the Navy, about which I wrote in my No. 5, Lord 
Russell took occasion, a few days since, to say in the House of 



^g^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

Lords that, since it was communicated to him, Hr. Seward had 
admitted that it was a forgery, fabricated, as he said, by some 
' gentleman ' in New York. 

" Before I left London I called on Mr. Wyon, the artist 
employed to make the Confederate Seal, referred to in my No. 
4, and paid him forty guineas — one-half the cost of the Seal, in 
advance, and arranged that when it was ready it should be care- 
fully packed, with the press, in a box lined with tin, and put in 
charge of Mr. Hotze until it could be sent over. He promised it 
should be ready by the middle of May. 

" I have the honor to be^ etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 36. 

" Department of State, 
" Richmond, 226. June, 1864, 
" Hon. James M. Mason, etc., etc., Paris. 

"Sir: Your No. 7, of 12th April, was received on the 
9th instant. 

" In relation to the ' Tuscaloosa,' the dispatches to the Navy 
Department give no further details than are contained in the 
British Blue Book which you forwarded to me. I regard this 
case as a marked outrage committed by a pretended neutral, but 
really hostile. Government, and one which the British Cabinet 
would not have ventured on for a moment against any nation 
which it believed capable of enforcing its rights against such 
insolent aggression. It is the consciousness of being safe at this 
moment from hostilities on our part, that can alone have embold- 
ened the present Foreign Secretary to an action from which he 
would have shrunk in afifright if directed against France, or 
Russia, or the United States. It was no doubt to this case that the 
President referred in his message when he said, ' and in one 
instance our flag also insulted where the sacred right of asylum 
was supposed to be secure,' and when he spoke of wrongs ' for 
which we may not properly forbear from demanding redress.' 

" Your action in the matter of the three men from the ' Ger- 
rity ' was entirely accordant with our views, as you will probably 
have learned ere this from Mr. Hotze, to whom instructions were 
sent to provide for their defense. The facts of the case are set 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



495 



forth in my dispatch to him, more accurately than they reached 
you. 

" The additional forgery by the United States Government 
of the pretended deciphered note to me from a New York agent, 
as contained in the Blue Book of the ' Chesapeake ' case, having 
been already exposed by Mr. Slidell, it is perhaps not necessary 
that I should take any notice of it. If, how^ever, it is thought that 
a denial is advisable, you are authorized, in my name, to make 
public the fact that Mr. Seward's statement to Lord Lyons (as 
related in the letter of the latter to Earl Russell, dated 24th 
December, 1863), that the paper forming enclosure No. 3 was ' the 
decipher of a letter from a Confederate agent in New York to Mr. 
Benjamin, the Secretary of State at Richmond,' is entirely false, 
and has not a semblance of fact to rest on. The ' enclosed paper 
No. 3,' at foot of page 9, in the Blue Book, is a forgery from begin- 
ning to end. Neither individually nor as Secretary of State have 
I ever had correspondence with any person in New York who 
signed the initials J. H. C. or any other initials, nor am I able to 
conjecture whether these initials refer to any person in existence 
supposed to be in correspondence with me or are purely imaginary. 
I am equally unable to conjecture to what facts, if any, the pre- 
tended letter in cipher refers, and have never had, directly or 
indirectly, whether as a private individual or public officer, any 
connection with or knowledge of any of the matters mentioned 
or referred to in the paper in question. The whole thing is just 
such a fabrication as the ' Mallory Report,' and is, like that report, 
' the invention of a gentleman.' It will, of course, be followed 
by as many more similar forgeries as may be deemed necessary 
by the Washington Cabinet as long as they have a purpose to 
accomplish and can find dupes to credit them. It is not fair to 
expect us to descend to further exposures of such wretched false- 
hoods and forgeries as form the staple of the correspondence of 
the United States Secretary of State in relation to our affairs, 
and if any publication on the subject is found necessary in the 
present instance, it should be accompanied by the distinct state- 
ment that we shall deem it inconsistent with self-respect to make 
any further attempt to undeceive the British Government as to 
the character of the communications from the United States 
officials, which they are habitually accepting as trustworthy. 



496 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" I send Mr. Slidell a copy of my last communication to 
Mr. Preston^ which will put you fully in possession of our present 
views on the matters to which you refer in both your last dis- 
patches. 

" The box of books which you were good enough to send 
me, z'ia Bermuda, has arrived in Wilmington, and I hope to receive 
it to-morrow. 

" I believe I have hitherto omitted to acknowledge receipt 
of the copy furnished by Mr. Lindsay of his correspondence with 
Mr. Drouyn de L'Huys. It has been read with interest, and will 
remain on the records of this Department in connection with the 
other papers of the very singular affair to which it refers. 
" I am, sir, very respectfully, 
" Your obedient servant, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN, 
"Secretary of State/' 

Dispatch No. 8. 

" Paris, June ist, 1864. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : In my last I told you that I assumed the responsi- 
bility of instructing Messrs. Snowball and Copeman, solicitors, at 
Liverpool, to employ counsel for the three men held in custody 
at the instance of Mr. Adams, Minister of the United States, and 
held for extradition on the charge of piracy in seizing the ship 
' Gerrity,' from Matamoras to New York, on board of which 
they were passengers. I have the honor to transmit herewith a 
duplicate of that dispatch which contains my reasons for doing so. 

" I have the pleasure to inform you that these men were 
discharged on habeas corpus by the Court of the Queen's Bench, 
on the 25th of May, the Chief Justice sustaining the arrest and 
the claim to extradition, and his three associates overruling his 
judgment. The cases were ably argued by eminent counsel on 
the part of the United States, and as ably defended on our part, 
for four consecutive days, as I find from the report at large in 
the newspapers. I have preserved the arguments and the opinions 
of the judges, which I will send to you when an opportunity 
offers, avoiding the heavy postage. The case turned and the dis- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



497 



charge was ordered, on the construction of the treaty — that the 
offense of piracy mentioned in the treaty did not mean piracy 
jure gentium, but was confined to piracy, so declared to be by the 
domestic laws of either country. I instructed our counsel to say 
that the defense was assumed by Mr. Mason on the part of the 
Confederate States, as its representative in Europe, and to defend, 
the capture as an act of war. I have not yet received the bill of 
costs for the defense, but, as I have said in my No. 7, will defray 
them out of the Contingent Fund, to be adjusted by an appropriate 
voucher hereafter, as the expenditure does not belong to that 
class. I hope what I have done in the matter will have the 
approval of the Department. 

" On Saturday last, I received a letter from our earnest 
and valued friend, Mr. Lindsay, dated at London the day before. 
He had some months ago given notice of a motion to be made 
in the House of Commons on the 3d of June, to the effect that 
' Her Majesty's Government should avail itself of the earliest 
opportunity of mediating in conjunction with the other powers 
of Europe, to bring about a cessation of hostilities in America^' 
and the chief object of his letter to me was to say that he had, 
on the day before, sought an interview with Lord Palmerston, 
in the hope of conciliating the support of the Government to his 
motion ; that he was to see him again, and yet hoped for a favor- 
able result. He said, further, that in the course of a conversation, 
he expressed his regret that Lord P. had not seen me whilst I 
was in England, because he thought if he had done so, as one 
having the confidence of my Government and people, and well 
informed about their affairs and position, I might have given him 
useful and valuable information ; and, in this connection, asked 
whether it would be agreeable to his Lordship to see and con- 
verse with me yet, as a ' private gentleman,' to which, after full 
conversation, Lord P. replied that it would give him pleasure to 
see me with Mr. Lindsay either on the Monday or Tuesday follow- 
ing, at his residence in London. Mr. Lindsay said he told Lord 
Palmerston that he had proposed the interview without any com- 
munication with me on the subject, and strongly pressed that I 
should go to London for this purpose. Mr. Lindsay added that 
Lord Palmerston told him that he had, of late, received two com- 
munications, not official, from the Emperor, who seemed by them 



498 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



to be very anxious that something should now be attempted to 
stop hostilities. I replied to Mr. Lindsay by the following mail, 
that I had maturely considered his proposition, and with every dis- 
position to comply with it, as his request, but, ' I am not at liberty 
to do so, and that I may not seem fastidious after his Lordship's 
kind assent to your proposal that he should see me, I will tell 
you frankly why. After the persistent refusal of Her Majesty's 
Government to recognize, in any form, the existence of the Gov- 
ernment of the Confederate States, I was directed by the President 
to consider my mission to England at an end, and to withdraw 
from London ; and further, instructions connected with my resi- 
dence on the Continent express the desire of the President that in 
regard to Great Britain, I should not again approach it, even in the 
most informal manner, without some intimation from that Govern- 
ment of its disposition to enter into official relations with my 
own. Had the suggestion you make of an interview and conver- 
sation with Lord Palmerston originated with his Lordship, I 
might not have felt myself prohibited by my instructions from, 
at once, acceding to it, but as it has the form, only, of his assent 
to a proposition from you, I must, with all respect, decline it. 

" ' Although no longer accredited by my Government as 
Special Commissioner to Great Britain, I am yet in Europe with 
full powers; and, therefore, had Lord Palmerston expressed a 
desire to see me as his own act (of course, unofficially), even 
without any reason assigned for the interview, I should have had 
great pleasure in complying with his Lordship's request.' 

" And in a private note to Mr. Lindsay, I told him he was 
at liberty, if he thought proper, to show my letter to Lord Pal- 
merston. On the following day (yesterday) I heard again from 
Mr. Lindsay under the date of the 30th. He said that on receipt 
of my letter, he again called on Lord Palmerston, and read it to 
him ; when there followed more than half an hour's conversation 
on American affairs, during which his Lordship said he did not see 
how recognition would terminate the war unless the Government 
was prepared further to raise the blockade, etc. — a position which 
Mr. Lindsay combatted by views inter alia which I had pre- 
sented to him in my previous letters. He does not report the 
conversation in detail, but said that Lord Palmerston ' again ex- 
pressed his opinion that the subjugation of the South could not 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



499 



be effected by the North, and added that he thought the people of 
the North were becoming more and more alive to the fact every 
day.' In regard to what I had written, Lord Palmerston said 
that as he had, yet, nothing to say to me more than he had said 
to him, he could not think of asking me to come down from Paris 
to see him, but, that if I were in London, he would be very glad 
to see me, as he wished to know me, and would like to hear my 
views on the present state of affairs. 

" In regard to this resolution, Mr. Lindsay said that Lord 
Palmerston's feelings were in favor of it, and that he had asked 
him to leave a copy that he might consult with his colleagues; 
and thought it had better be postponed for a short time, to which 
Mr. Lindsay acceded. 

" At the close of his letter, Mr. Lindsay added : ' Now, 
apart altogether from your seeing Lord Palmerston, I must 
earnestly entreat that you come here, unless you are much 
wanted in Paris — your visit here as a private gentleman can do 
no harm, and may, at the present moment, he of great value to 
your country.' (The italics his.) 

" You are aware that there are in England a number of gen- 
tlemen, chiefly members of the two Houses of Parliament, asso- 
ciated together as the friends of Southern Independence, It 
seems that Mr. Lindsay showed my letter, at one of their meet- 
ings, declining his proposal to see Lord Palmerston. I have this 
morning letters from two of them, earnestly pressing me to return 
for a while to London, of course, in a private capacity, whether 
I saw Lord Palmerston or not, and I have, in consequence, 
determined to do so. I have kept Mr. Slidell advised of the cor- 
respondence, and he agrees with me, that after declining at first, 
it would be manifest indifference or churlishness to refuse even 
to visit London, though so urgently pressed by friends who are 
actively at work in our behalf to come to their aid. Whether or 
not I shall see Lord Palmerston will depend upon circumstances 
after I get there, and the counsels of judicious friends. I shall, 
in no way, court publicity, and, of one thing be assured, that no 
one, friend or foe, shall look upon me as a suitor. 

" In regard to the missing box of books, I hope it may before 
this have safely reached you. I wrote to Major Walker inquiring 
for it. I have his reply, dated the i6th April, acknowledging the 



500 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



receipt of the last box shipped to his care, which contained the 
missing volumes of ' Hansard/ etc. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 9. 

" London, June 9th, 1864. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Having taken the step of coming to London, in 
seeming departure from your instruction previously given. I was 
much gratified to find in yours of the i8th April that those instruc- 
tions were modified so far as to leave such movements more at 
my discretion. 

" I have had a long conversation, since my arrival here, with 
Mr. Lindsay in regard to the subject of our correspondence 
before I left Paris, treated of in my last dispatch. Following up 
his hope of conciliating the Ministry in favor of his resolution, 
he had, a few days ago, an interview with Lord Russell, in which, 
while evincing every disposition to consider it favorably, he made 
no committal to give it his support, or that of the Ministerial party. 
I gave you the tenor of the resolution in my last. He said that 
Lord Russell expressed the decided opinion that the North could 
not overcome the South, and his belief that the people of the 
North were getting to be alive to the fact ; but that, in all his 
conversations with Mr. Adams, the latter spoke as confidently 
as ever, and amongst other things said that his Government did 
not consider it of any great moment whether they succeeded in 
their movement against Richmond or no — that their chief object 
was to maintain the control of the Mississippi. Such seems the 
chafif with which the Foreign Office is plied ! I had learned from 
other sources that Mr. Disraeli had said to one of his friends and 
followers, that if the South should obtain a decided success in 
the pending campaign against Richmond, he would be prepared to 
bring forward a motion of some such character as that of Mr. 
Lindsay, I told this to Mr. Lindsay, who agreed, at once, that it 
could not be in better hands; and, under such auspices, would 
certainly carry. Yielding to the suggestion of Lord Palmerston 
to await the result of the pending movement against Richmond, 
Mr. Lindsay has deferred his motion to the 17th instant. Should 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. ^qI 

Grant be routed or finally driven back, either the Ministry would 
have to entertain a resolution favorable to us in some form, or the 
Opposition would make it an issue with them. Indeed, I am satis- 
fied that so general, almost universal, is popular sentiment in Eng- 
land with the South, accompanied by such strong impressions 
of the unnecessary and dreadful carnage which attends the war, 
that if we have the anticipated success in Virginia, the Ministry, 
even if disposed to resist, would have to yield to popular senti- 
ment. 

" I shall remain in London as long as I think I can be useful 
here in intercourse with our friends, by whom I have been very 
warmly and kindly received. 

" June ioth. — I have just had an interview with Mr. Wyon, 
who is executing the Seal. He tells me that it will certainly be 
ready within a fortnight. He will send with it a supply of pre- 
pared wax and other appendages for connecting the Seal with 
the document. I thought it better to have these supplies sent, in 
the absence of the proper materials in the Confederacy ; and will 
look out for some opportunity by an officer or other trusty person 
to take charge of them. 

" I have, etc., 

."J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 37. 

"7. P. Benjamin, Secretary State Confederate States, to J. M. 
Mason, . Commissioner to Great Britain. 
" Department of State, 

"Richmond, 12th July, 1864. 
" Sir: The President is much pleased at the course pursued 
by you in the matter of the interview with Lord Palmerston, as 
detailed in your No. 8. It accords exactly with his view of what 
propriety dictated under the circumstances, and while prudence 
and policy require that any advances made by the British Cabinet 
towards the establishment of relations with you, should be met in 
a courteous spirit, we are satisfied that a lofty and independent 
bearing, exacting the utmost measure of the respect to which you 
are entitled as a representative of the Confederate States in for- 
eign countries, is better calculated to subserve our interests than 



C02 ^^^^ 0^ JAMES MURRAT MASON. 

the indication of any eagerness to grasp at the first opening 
for an interview, whether official or unofficial, with the British 
Premier or Foreign Secretary. 

" In relation to your presence in London as a private gentle- 
man, for conference with those who display so friendly a warmth 
in our favor as Mr. Lindsay and others whom you mention, the 
President considers that you are better able on the spot to judge 
of the advantage to be derived from an occasional visit to London, 
than he can be at this distance, and is content to leave your course 
on this point to be guided by your own discretion. 

" We have from the North, English dates to the 26th ultimo, 
announcing the adjournment of the conference without success in 
effecting any arrangement, and the renewal of hostilities in Den- 
mark. 

" We can not judge what course England will take, though it 
seems, from this side, scarcely possible for her to avoid a war. 

" As nothing is said in the New York papers about Mr. 
Lindsay's motion, I take it for granted that it was again post- 
poned. We have expected no result from this move, and regard it 
merely as an evidence of the sympathy and regard for us of the 
gentleman by whom the motion was made. 

" I am, sir, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN." 

" 16 Rue de Marignan^ 

" Paris, June 2d, 1864. 

" My Very Dear Wife: I avail myself of the kind aid of 
Miss Eliza Soutter to send you this note. In the absence of Mr. 
Macfarland, who is in London, she is kind enough to act both as 
Secretary of Legation, and as amanuensis for me. We have just 
completed, and copied a long dispatch to Mr. Benjamin, and I am 
sure she will have your thanks, in advance, for her kindness in 
thus officiating. 

" We are all in painful suspense here in the absence of further 
intelligence, of the great struggle pending, at last accounts, in Vir- 
ginia. Our latest dates were at New York on the loth of May, 
and Yankee though they were, they admit the heroic defense 
made by our gallant army. We do not hear the extent of the 
losses on our side, but the enemy admitting from fifty to eighty 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



503 



thousand on theirs, we are left to imagine a proportionate one on 
our side ; horrible and distressing carnage indeed. When I read 
of these things, I feel more than ever, the earnest desire to be in 
your midst ; but in the trials we have to undergo, each must dis- 
charge, as I know all do at home (and none can have harder trials 
than those who are perilled in battle), the duties that devolve on 
each. We have accounts of no later battle than that of the 12th of 
May, when the enemy was repulsed in a renewed attack at Spott- 
sylvania Court-House and where, as it would appear. General 
Johnston, with a large part of his division, was made prisoner. 

" I go to-morrow back to London, at the earnest instance of 
many friends there, chiefly members of Parliament, who think 
that my presence and counsels will aid them in efforts they are 
about to make to induce their Government to come to a better 
way of thinking on our affairs ; I do not expect to remain very 
long, and go with some reluctance, but have yielded to the opinions 
and wishes of those whose opinions on the matter I am not at 
liberty to disregard, and which I have explained in a private letter 
to the President, which goes with this. 

" Yours ever, 

"J. M. MASON." 

" 24 Upper Seymour Street, 

"London, June nth, 1864. 
" My Very Dear Wife: I came back to London three or four 
days ago from Paris, entirely as a private gentleman. On the 
8th inst., two days after my arrival, I had the great pleasure to 
receive yours of 22d of April, with a P. S. from V. and a copy of 
a letter from Winchester. It will do good here. The accounts 
you give of our home and household, are very gratifying, but I 
am, as you may well know, in the midst of great anxiety for the 
results, and the consequences of the late terrible fighting in Vir- 
ginia. Both our boys, I have understood, were in the division 
under General Johnston, which is reported, after serious losses, to 
have lost many as prisoners. I can only hope for the best. 
Indeed one can hardly indulge in personal anxieties amidst the 
terrible carnage occasioned by those battles. I had strong hopes 
that you, with the girls and little children, would have left Rich- 
mond, thus avoiding all the painful excitement which must per- 



^04 ^^^^ OjF" JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



vade the city, and indeed I still hope that our good friends around 
you, may have induced you to do so. But in regard to all this, 
I can, for the present, only remain in doubt. 

" God bless and preserve you all, my dear wife, in this terri- 
ble struggle. With constant love to Kate and her little ones, and 
to our own dear circle. 

" Yours most affectionately, 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. io. 

" London, July 6th, 1864. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I have the pleasure to inform you that I send by 
Lieutenant Chapman, C. S. N., who bears this, the Seal of the 
Confederate States, at last completed. It is much admired by all 
who have seen it here. I hope you will approve it as a fine work 
of art. 

" The Seal is carefully put up in a separate small box ; and 
Lieutenant Chapman is charged, under no circumstances to run 
the risk of its being captured. He takes the route to Bermuda, via 
Halifax, to sail on Saturday the 9th instant, and I ship through 
Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm and Company, by the steamer that takes 
him to Halifax, two boxes containing the iron press, with a full 
supply of wax and other materials for the use of the Seal. 
Although not expressly ordered, in the difficulty of obtaining these 
things in the Confederacy, at present, at least, of approved quality, 
I have thought it best to have them supplied here — all which I 
hope you will approve. The enclosed duplicate bill will furnish 
you a list of those materials with the prices. The original I have 
paid and retain. 

" I have requested Lieutenant Chapman to take charge of the 
boxes at Bermuda, and to see to their safe delivery. To relieve 
him of expenses on the route, I have further requested Messrs. 
Fraser, Trenholm & Company here, if they can do so, to pay the 
freight all the way to Bermuda, and write to Major Walker at 
Bermuda to pay the freight thence to the Confederacy, should 
they not go in a Government ship. Still, it is possible that some 
part of this may not be done, and I have accordingly told Lieu- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



505 



tenant Chapman, should any expenses in the transportation de- 
volve on him, it should be paid promptly at the Department, which 
oblige me by having attended to. 

" I have, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. ii. 

" London, July 8th, 1864. 

"' Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : You will have seen through the Northern press long 
before this can reach you the motion made in the House of Com- 
mons in nature of ' want of confidence,' intended to oust the 
Ministry. The debate on the motion commencing on Monday the 
4th. yet continues ; and absorbs every other question. The issue 
seems uncertain, but you will have heard that, too-, far in advance 
of this dispatch. Whilst the debate is going on, we are receiving 
the cheering account of our great successes against Grant in Vir- 
ginia ; and, as far as we can determine through the imperfect and 
disjointed intelligence from the North, of like successes against 
Sherman in Georgia. We do not doubt the result in either 
quarter ; and should they prove so decisive as finally to dispose of 
both armies of invasion, I entertain a strong hope, let the Ministe- 
rial issue result as it may, that public opinion in England will 
compel the Government to move in some manner advantageously 
to us. And, as things present themselves, I should even have 
stronger hope of this, or rather, of more prompt action should 
the present Ministry remain in, than if unseated. In my last, I 
told you of the interview held by Mr. Lindsay with Lord Russell, 
having previously reported those held with Lord Palmerston, and 
from which Mr. Lindsay drew favorable inferences ; but in the 
preparations for the issue now made, and its engrossing character 
while pending, of course, no further steps concerning American 
affairs can be taken. We have, too, another gleam of light from 
another quarter which may inure to our benefit. It is said that 
Denmark, now certainly left alone to combat all Germany, has 
made overtures to terminate the war by being admitted into the 
Germanic Confederation. Should this prove true, and that em- 
broglio be removed out of the way, I should have still greater 



^o6 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



hope that some favorable movement in regard to the South could 
be forced from the Ministry. These are the best speculations that 
I can offer as derived from my present sojourn in London. I see 
a great many of the more prominent public men, both Peers and 
Commoners, who talk freely with me, as I do with them. Should 
there be no dissolution. Parliament will probably remain in session 
until the first week in August. 

" I have not seen Lord Palmerston, as I have written to you, 
as was proposed by Mr. Lindsay. On coming here Mr. L. renewed 
the proposal when I told him I would not call on Lord Palmerston 
on the indirect invitation given whilst I was in Paris, although I 
would be really happy to have a conversation with him ; and that 
if Lord Palmerston desired it, he had only to write me a note, or 
send me a message to that effect. I have heard nothing more in 
regard to it. 

" Since my last, we have sustained a severe blow in the loss 
of the ' Alabama ' after a daring and most gallant fight. I went 
to see Captain Semmes immediately on hearing of his arrival at 
Southampton, and he acquiesced in my suggestion that his official 
report to his superior officer in Europe should be published by me 
here at once, as the most speedy mode of getting it to our Govern- 
ment by its republication in the North. Every indication was 
given here of the desire to receive Captain Semmes in the most 
marked manner — a public dinner, I understand was tendered him 
by the Army and Navy Club, which he declined ; and measures 
were at once taken, originating with officers of Her Majesty's 
Navy, to present him a sword. 

" I can not conclude without a full expression of the deep 
gratitude I feel, in common with all my countrymen here, to the 
gallant armies in the field, who have so nobly and successfully 
illustrated the character and spirit of our Southern people ; and 
more especially to their able and heroic leaders. I really speak 
without exaggeration, when I say that all Europe is filled with 
the deserved fame of Lee, Beauregard, and Johnston. 

" I have, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

Unofficial letter to Mr. Benjamin. Not among Mr, Mason's 
papers, but obtained from the Department in Washington: 



LIFE OF JAMES MVRRAT MASON. ^qj 

\^ " Shepperton Manor, Middlesex, July 14th, 1864. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, etc., etc., etc. 

" My Dear Sir : An opportunity immediately offering by 
Mr. Hamilton of the Navy, who sails day after to-morrow from 
Liverpool for Bermuda, and of which I did not know until to-day, 
I avail myself of it to report the heads of a conversation I had 
to-day with Lord Palmerston. His Lordship renewed, through 
Mr. Lindsay, his invitation to me to see him, and I went with 
Mr. Lindsay, from his home in the country, where I am a guest, 
to London this morning for that purpose. 

" I was received with great civility, and after the ordinary 
topics of salutation, Lord P. commenced the conversation. His 
points of inquiry were: the condition of the war; its probable 
duration ; the prospects of the Presidential election, and the in- 
fluences upon the war, as it might result ; whether I thought that 
any interposition now, by the European powers, would be better 
received by the Northern Government than at an earlier day. 

" My replies were, that I thought there was evidence the war 
would terminate w^ ith the present campaign, though not at once by 
a treaty of peace, but because the North would be unable to re- 
plenish its armies ; that enlistments had ceased under any stimulant 
and that it was manifest they dare not attempt a draught. His 
Lordship asked in that connection, what would be the attitude of 
the South, and if they took Washington, what would be done with 
it. I replied I did not doubt it would be destroyed, not vindic- 
tively but to keep the enemy at a distance. He expressed a doubt, 
whether in such a case it would not be wise in the South to remain 
still upon the defensive. As to the elections, I said, assuming, as 
I felt unable to do, the failure both of Grant and Sherman, there 
would result such anarchy in the North, as to make it doubtful 
whether any election could be held, Lincoln would probably be 
defeated, and such would be the condition of things, that if the 
European powers woi:dd take any steps, expressive of their sense 
that the war ought to end. it would bring out the potential voice 
of those who were really for peace, but who, without such aid, 
might be afraid to let their voice be heard ; and in this connection 
I told him, that I did not doubt the responsible and considerate 
mind of the North would look to such interposition as a godsend, 
and that, however the Government might have received it at an 



5o8 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



earlier day, the Government would be powerless before the masses 
insisting on a peace ; that I thought both he and I would form a 
safe opinion as to the probable effect of such interposition, when 
we looked at the broken and disintegrating condition of the North, 
broken into factions, its finances in ruins, and unable to replenish 
its army ; in such condition men could look only to a peace. 

" Such is the outline only of what passed. At the conclusion 
I said to him in reply to his remark, that he was gratified in mak- 
ing my acquaintance, that I felt obliged by his invitation to the 
interview, but that the obligation would be increased if I could 
take with me any expectation that the Government of Her 
Majesty was prepared to unite with France, in some act expres- 
sive of their sense that the war should come to an end. He said, 
that perhaps, as I was of opinion that the crisis was at hand, it 
might be better to wait until it had arrived. I told him that my 
opinion was that the crisis had passed, at least so far as that the 
war of invasion would end with the campaign. 

" I send you this hurried note by the opportunity offering, 
but will reduce the conversation to more intelligible form for my 
next dispatch. It may be found that good will come of it. 

" Our interview was held in the form of an ordinary visit at 
his residence, Mr. Lindsay alone being present. 

" Praying your pardon for so hurried a note, I am, 
" My dear sir, very truly yours, 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 12. 

" London, August 4th, 1864. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Parliament was prorogued on the 29th July, and with- 
out a vote being taken on the resolution of Mr. Lindsay. With 
many fair expressions, that gentleman found it impossible, it 
appeared, to conciliate the Ministry in its favor; and deemed it 
prudent to let it go by. As things stand, we can only still further 
await events. In an unofficial note, written from Mr. Lindsay's 
some two or three weeks since, I gave you the substance of an 
interview I had with Lord Palmerston. It imported but little, 
and in a private note to the President, which accompanies this 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^qQ 

dispatch, I give the report somewhat more in detail, thinking it 
best not to give the subject the formal character of a dispatch. 

" There being nothing special calling me to the Continent, 
and the political world generally being in recess for the summer, 
I propose, for the next two or three weeks, to visit different points 
in England and in Ireland, not to return to London unless specially 
called. I shall always, however, be in immediate reach by the 
mails and telegraph, and at once accessible through an address 
left in London. " I have, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 38. 

" /. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State Confederate States, to J. M. 
Mason, Commissioner Confederate States to England. 

" Department of State, 

" Richmond, 20th September, 1864. 

" Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your Nos. 
10, II, and 12, the two former received together on 4th ultimo, 
and the last on 12th instant. 

" Your unofficial note of July 14th dated at Shepperton 
Manor, Middlesex, was not received till the 15th instant, and the 
private letter to the President stated to accompany your dispatch 
No. 12 has not yet reached him, nor was it found in the dispatch. 

" Although the Seal came safely to hand on the 4th ultimo, 
having been delivered to me by Lieutenant Chapman in person, I 
have no news as yet of the two boxes which were shipped by the- 
same steamer to care of Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Company, 
so that I have as yet been unable to take an impression or to judge 
of the effect produced. 

" Mr. Trenholm, our new Secretary of the Treasury, has 
written to discover the cause of the delay. I begin to fear that the 
boxes are lost. 

" You will receive herewith Treasury draft for four hundred 
and fifty-eight pounds, one shilling, and four pence ( £458, i, 4), 
as requested in your No. 12 to cover the expenses of the defense in 
the case of the captors of the ' Gerrity.' You must long since 
have received my dispatch conveying the approval by the Govern- 
ment of your course in regard to these parties. 



5^0 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" I am afraid that in your interview with Lord Palmerston 
you went rather beyond what the state of the case would warrant 
in the prediction made as to the condition of the North and the 
prospects of early peace. It is not considered here very likely that 
the North will be the first to recognize the independence of the 
Confederacy if it be possible for them to avoid the humiliation of 
such a step and although the war may gradually lose its intensity, 
there is great reason to fear that it may long continue a lingering 
existence, if European powers persist in the encouragement which 
is afforded the North by their obstinate refusal to recognize us. 

" You were probably better able to judge on the spot of the 
efifect likely to be produced on the mind of the British Premier 
by the assurances given him, but from our standpoint it would 
seem that the expression of a conviction that hostilities would con- 
tinue till our recognition by Europe should afford a basis for a 
treaty of peace would have been more likely to produce a good 
result as well as more accordant with the probable course of 
events. 

" You may perhaps have doubted whether the English Gov- 
ernment desired the cessation of the war. Their conduct has pro- 
duced the conviction on many minds that they dread the restora- 
tion of peace on this side, and if that view be correct, your remarks 
were better adapted to produce effect than those above suggested. 

" We have, however, long ceased to expect from England any 
other action than such as may be dictated by our enemies to suit 
their own policy, and look with little interest to any declarations 
of her public men, being able to judge by the past what their acts 
will be under any circumstances. I perceive, however, that Lord 
Palmerston asked your opinion of the manner in which the North 
would receive any intervention or mediation on the part of Great 
Britain, still persistently taking for granted that such intervention 
was desired by us. It seems impossible to make foreign govern- 
ments understand that we ask and desire no such thing, that 
we confine ourselves to the simple demand for recognition, 
that recognition will end the war from whatever quarter it 
may come, and that nothing else will. It is singular that when 
both belligerents have for two years shown in every conceivable 
manner that they consider the recognition of the South by 
Europe as absolutely conclusive of the struggle and as certain to 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



511 



result in a cessation of hostilities, foreign governments should 
persistently affect to consider that such recognition would be of 
no value unless followed by active intervention. This is the more 
surprising because history is full of examples of recognition unac- 
companied by any intervention or mediation, and productive of 
no further manifestation of resentment on the part of the nation 
seeking the subjugation of its adversary than an empty protest or 
remonstrance. The President will leave this evening for Georgia, 
and will I trust put matters there on a more satisfactory footing. 
There is no reason for despondency on account of the position of 
affairs there. On the contrary, we look for decisive success if the 
arrangements now in progress can be completed. 
" I have the honor to be, 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

" J. P. BENJAMIN." 

" Leamington, Warwickshire, Sept. 19th, 1864. 

" My Dear Wife: Returning from a little tour through Scot- 
land and Ireland, where I paid some pleasant visits, in the latter 
to Lord and Lady Donoughmore, I have stopped for a few days at 
this pleasant country town on my way to Paris, and am again 
indebted to my kind friend Miss Lilie Soutter^ who is here on a 
visit to some of her Confederate friends, as my amanuensis for 
this letter. 

" We have a large circle of Confederates in this retired town, 
which makes a sojourn amongst them very pleasant to one 
familiar only with the faces of strangers and foreigners. 
Amongst them, Mrs. B. W. Leigh of Richmond, with her 
daughters. Yet I have been fortunate in England, in attaching 
many agreeable and hospitable friends, as well within, as without 
the circles of the statesmen and public men, and have always 
abundance of invitations to visit them at their charming country 
homes, of which I avail myself as far as consistent with other 
duties. 

" I have promised to return from Paris to England about the 
middle of next month, to be present at a grand ' Fair,' called here 
a ' Bazaar,' to be held in Liverpool, for the benefit of the sick and 
wounded Confederates, and for the relief of our men, prisoners at 
the North. This is purely an enterprise gotten up by English 



512 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



gentlemen and ladies, sympathizers with the South, and of their 
own prompting, and will be under the patronage of ladies, most 
distinguished by their rank and their position in society, amongst 
them my friend Lady Mildred Hope and her daughters. These 
ladies are to take charge of or to represent each the several States, 
and to superintend, or rather to conduct the sales. It has been 
in course of preparation for some months and, I doubt not, will 
be a most munificent, as it certainly is, a most benevolent ofifering. 
I should not be surprised if it reached to an amount exceeding ten 
thousand pounds. I shall be the guest, at Liverpool, of James 
Spence, Esq., of whom you may have heard as an able and 
eloquent advocate of the Southern cause. 

" Most affectionately, 

" J. M. M." 

" No. 24 Upper Seymour St., Portman Square, 

" London, September 21st, 1864, 
" Dear George: I have not had the pleasure of hearing from 
you for a very long time, but now, as the Yankees have left 
Brownsville, and Texas generally, I presume the communications 
will be again opened, and I hope you will occasionally write to me. 
Your friend Mr. Clements tells me that he gets letters from home, 
one recently, from Governor Morehead with a newspaper con- 
taining a speech he delivered at Houston, and which showed that 
you introduced him to the meeting, thus, at least, giving evidence 
of your vitality. My latest from home were from the girls, dated 
9th July, when all were well, cheerful and buoyant. They say 
their latest from you was dated on April ist last, when you 
announced the arrival of another son ; my best wishes attend him. 
You will doubtless have seen in the papers that the Commission 
to England was terminated some twelve months ago, because of 
the general ill conduct to us of Her Majesty's Government with 
the refusal of Earl Russell to admit me even to an unofficial in- 
terview, and I was ordered to withdraw from London, which I 
accordingly did, and have remained since chiefly on the Continent. 
After the termination of the English Mission, I was appointed 
Commissioner on the Continent at large, with general and large 
discretionary powers ; am now in England, but for a few days, 
when I shall return to Paris. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^jj 

" The accounts I get from home, of the devastation and ruin 
of that part of our dear old State, where the enemy is in posses- 
sion, or their armies have passed, are truly distressing ; the popula- 
tion in those districts, chiefly women and children, and old or 
infirm men, reduced to absolute starvation, yet they give not the 
slightest evidence of submission, but are content to die rather than 
return to the brutal Government we have shaken off. Virginia 
has indeed shown herself worthy her ancient renown, 

" We are all speculating here on the probabilities of a ter- 
mination of the war, through the dissensions and disorganization 
manifest at the North. 

" I have not the least reliance, far less faith, in the soi-disant 
Democratic party there, or in the professions they make either to 
themselves, or the South, and I repose, even here, in perfect con- 
fidence that neither our Government nor our people will be in the 
least deluded by them. The present struggle is simply one of 
succession to political power, and the platforms and professions 
attending their conventions are only so many bids for the popular 
vote. Should the Democratic party get into power, its policy will 
be directed solely by measures thought, for the time being, best 
calculated to retain it ; whether they be measures of war or peace, 
without regard to any previous professions. Through the North- 
ern press, however, I think there are unmistakable evidences that 
the enlightened, and responsible mind there, is hopeless of restor- 
ing the Union, and equally hopeless of continuing the war, from 
lack both of men and money, and with full knowledge, that if the 
war were continued, their present apprehended bankruptcy would 
be a fact accomplished, and there are evidences equally strong, 
that the masses at the North, utterly disheartened and discouraged, 
have no farther stomach for the fight and will be neither led nor 
driven into it. However, it is vain to speculate, yet all history is 
deceptive, if the Northern people can escape a general breaking 
up, in some form, and our independence be secured through their 
weakness, and our compactness of purpose. In the long and tedi- 
ous exile from home, I am happy to say that I have enjoyed unin- 
terrupted health, an exile that has been much lightened by the 
association of many agreeable and interesting persons, elderly 
people with their families from the South, awaiting in Europe the 
return of peace, and in England have enjoyed the kindness and 



rj^ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

hospitality of a large and attractive circle, as well in private as in 
public station. Whenever you can send letters to Havana they will 
come safely to me through the British mail, under cover to Colonel 
Charles Helm, Commercial Agent of the Confederate States at 
Havana, and do let me hear of every thing that interests you and 
yours. 

" With best love and remembrance to Ella and Jemmy. 
" Yours affectionately, 

"J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. 13. 

" Paris, September 29th, 1864. 

''Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Some ten days ago, I saw printed in the Northern 
papers your dispatch to me of the 25th of August, published as a 
reprint from the Richmond Examiner of the 27th, relating to the 
late interview between James F. Jacques and James R. Gilmore 
with the President at Richmond. The original I have not yet 
received. I could well understand the object in publishing this 
dispatch at home and at once. Immediately on seeing it, I took 
measures to have it published in the London journals. I had 
previously seen the version of that interview given by Mr. Gil- 
more through the Northern press ; and after the publication of 
your dispatch, was gratified to find that the Democratic journals 
there, at least, accepted it as the truth of the matter. 

" In regard to so much of your No. 36 as refers to the 
fabricated papers palmed off on the British Government by the 
American Secretary of State, through Lord Lyons, its denial of 
the authenticity of those documents is so minute and explicit ; 
coupled with the declaration that our Government would deem it 
inconsistent with self-respect, hereafter, to descend to the like 
refutation with a view to undeceive the British Government as to 
the character of any future communications in relation to our 
affairs, which they habitually accepted from the Government at 
Washington, that I think it would be as well to give so much of 
the dispatch to the public, although the forgeries have hitherto 
been denounced by Mr. Slidell. I shall have it published in the 
Index. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. rjr 



" Whilst in Warwickshire, England, a few days ago, I wrote 
you an unofficial note by an opportunity offering through Mr. 
McHenry, then about to sail for the Confederacy, referring in it 
to such matters of public interest as presented themselves. I 
returned to Paris a few days since, and shall remain here until 
about the middle of October. At that time there is to be held at 
Liverpool a grand ' Bazaar.' called in our country a Fair, the 
avails of which are dedicated to relieve the wants and necessities 
of Southern prisoners confined in the North. It originated with 
the Southern Club at Liverpool which has, for some time past, 
been collecting and remitting funds for that purpose to con- 
fidential agencies at the North. The plan of the Bazaar has been 
taken up by the highest of the nobility in England, friends of our 
cause, and many of their ladies will officiate in person on the 
occasion, besides making large contributions. Our friend, Mr. 
Spence, has for some months had the matter actively in hand ; 
and I have promised him that I would be present as his guest. 
He tells me that most midnificent donations have been made in 
money from various parts of England ; and the nobility taking it 
up, gives a tone which ensures success. He thinks its avails may 
far exceed, and can not fall below ten thousand pounds. I speak 
of it as part of the history of the times, and evincing the sym- 
pathies of the English people. 

" There is nothing new here in European politics beyond 
what you will get through the public journals. Much speculation 
is indulged in as to the probable result of the Presidential election 
at the North, since the manifesto in McClellan's letter of accept- 
ance. Result as it may, I can not see how the war can be carried 
on where it is manifest that the people have no longer any stomach 
for the fight. 

" I have, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 



5i6 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Mission of Messrs. Jacques and Gilmore to Richmond — St. Alban's Raid — 
Letter from Bennet Young — Criticism by "Historicus" of Instructions 
from Department to Cruisers In Regard to Neutral Property — Morning 
Post Condemns Position Taken by "Historicus" — " Historicus" Said to 
be Mr. Vernon Harcourt — Post Said to be Lord Palmerston's Organ — 
Rumors of Purpose to Increase Southern Army by Arming the Slaves 
Attracts Favorable Attention in England — Correspondence With Mr. 
Coolidge, of Boston, Relating to Treatment of Northern Soldiers in 
Southern Prisons. 

" Department of State, 

" Richmond, 2Sth Aug^ust, 1864. 

"" Hon. James M. Mason, Commissioner to the Continent, Paris. 

" Sir : Numerous publications which have appeared in the 
journals of the United States on the subject of informal over- 
tures for peace between the two Federations of States now at war 
on this Continent, render it desirable that you should be fully 
advised of the views and policy of this Government on a matter of 
such paramount importance. It is likewise proper that you should 
be accurately informed of what has occurred on the several occa- 
sions mentioned in the published statements. 

" You have heretofore been furnished with copies of the 
manifesto issued by the Congress of the Confederate States with 
the approval of the President on the 14th June last, and have 
doubtless acted in conformity with the resolution which requested 
that copies of this manifesto should be laid before foreign govern- 
ments. 

" The principles, sentiments, and purposes by which these 
States * have been and are still actuated ' are set forth in that 
paper with all the authority due to the solemn declaration of the 
Legislative and Executive Departments of the Government, and 
with a clearness which leaves no room for comment or explana- 
tion. In a few sentences it is pointed out that all we ask is im- 
munity from interference with our internal peace and prosperity, 
' and to be left in the undisturbed enjoyment of those inalienable 
rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness which our com- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. rj^ 

mon ancestors declared to be the equal heritage of all parties to 
the social compact. Let them forbear aggressions upon us and 
the war is at an end. If there be questions which require adjust- 
ment by negotiation, we have ever been willing and are still will- 
ing to enter into communication with our adversaries in a spirit of 
peace, of equity and manly frankness.' 

" The manifesto closed with the declaration that ' we commit 
our cause to the enlightened judgment of the world, to the sober 
reflections of our adversaries themselves and to the solemn and 
righteous arbitrament of Heaven.' 

" Within a very few weeks after the publication of the mani- 
festo, it seemed to have met with a response from President 
Lincoln. 

" In the early part of last month, a letter was received by 
General Lee from Lieutenant-General Grant in the following 
words : 

" ' Headquarters Armies of the United States, 

" ' City Point, Va., July 8th, 1864. 
" ' General R. E. Lee, 

" ' Commanding Confederate Forces near Petersburg, Va. 
" ' General : I would request that Colonel James F, Jac- 
ques, Seventy-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and J. R. Gil- 
more, Esq., be allowed to meet Colonel Robert Ould, Commis- 
sioner for the Exchange of Prisoners, at such place between the 
lines of the two armies as you may designate. The object of the 
meeting is legitimate with the duties of Colonel Ould, as Commis- 
sioner. If not consistent for you to grant the request here asked, 
1 would beg that this be referred to President Davis for his action. 
" ' Requesting as early an answer to this communication as 
you may find it convenient to make, I submit myself very 
respectfully. Your obedient servant, 

• " ' U. S. GRANT, 
" *" Lieutenant-General U. S. A.' 

" On the reference of this letter to the President he authorized 
Colonel Ould to meet the persons named in General Grant's letter, 
and Colonel Ould, after seeing them, returned to Richmond and 
reported to the President in the presence of the Secretary of War 
and myself that Messrs. Jacques and Gilmore had not said any- 



5i8 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



thing to him about his duties as Commissioner for exchange of 
prisoners, but that they asked permission to come to Richmond 
for the purpose of seeing the President ; that they came with the 
knowledge and approval of President Lincoln and under his pass ; 
that they were informal messengers sent with a view of paving the 
way for a meeting of formal Commissioners authorized to nego- 
tiate for peace, and desired to communicate to President Davis the 
views of Mr. Lincoln and to obtain the President's views in return 
so as to arrange for a meeting of Commissioners. Colonel Ould 
stated that he had told them repeatedly that it was useless to come 
to Richmond to talk of peace on any other terms than the recog- 
nized independence of the Confederacy ; to which they said that 
they were aware of that, and that they were nevertheless confident 
that their interview would result in peace. The President, on this 
report of Colonel Ould, determined to permit them to come to 
Richmond under his charge. 

" On the evening of the i6th July, Colonel Ould conducted 
these gentlemen to a Hotel in Richmond where a room was pro- 
vided for them in which they were to remain under surveillance 
during their stay here, and the next morning I received the fol- 
lowing letter : 

" ' Spottswood House, 

" ' Richmond, Va., July 17th, 1864. 
"'Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State of C. S. A. 

" ' Dear Sir : The undersigned James F. Jacques, of Illinois, 
and James R. Gilmore, of Massachusetts, most respectfully solicit 
an interview with President Davis. They visit Richmond as 
private citizens, and have no official character or authority, but 
they are fully possessed of the views of the United States Govern- 
ment relative to an adjustment of the differences now existmg 
between the North and the South, and have little doubt that a free 
interchange of views between President Davis and themselves, 
would open the way to such official negotiations as would ultimate 
in restoring peace to the two sections of our distracted country. 

" ' They therefore ask an interview with the President, and 
awaiting your reply are 

" * Most truly and respectfully, your obedient servants, 

" ' JAMES R JACQUES, 
" ' JAMES R. GILMORE.' " 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. jjp 

" The word ' official ' is underscored and the word ' peace ' 
doubly underscored in the original. 

" After perusing the letter, I invited Colonel Ould to conduct 
the writers to my office, and on their arrival stated to them that 
they must be conscious that they could not be admitted to an 
interview with the President without informing me more fully of 
the object of their mission, and satisfying me that they came by 
request of Mr. Lincoln : Mr. Gilmore replied that they came 
unofficially but with the knowledge and at the desire of Mr. Lin- 
coln: that they thought the war had gone far enough, that it 
could never end except by some sort of agreement, that the agree- 
ment might as well be made now as after further bloodshed ; that 
they knew by the recent. address of the Confederate Congress that 
we were willing to make peace ; that they admitted proposals 
ought to come from the North and that they were prepared to 
make these proposals by Mr. Lincoln's authority ; that it was 
necessary to have a sort of informal understanding in advance 
of regular negotiations, for if Commissioners were appointed 
without some such understanding they would meet, quarrel, and 
separate, leaving the parties more bitter against each other than 
before ; that they knew Mr. Lincoln's views and would state them 
if pressed by the President to do so, and desire to learn his in 
return. 

" I again insisted on some evidence that they came from Mr. 
Lincoln, and in order to satisfy me, Mr. Gilmore referred to the 
fact that permission for their coming through our lines had been 
asked officially by General Grant in a letter to General Lee, and 
that General Grant in that letter had asked that this request should 
be referred to President Davis. Mr. Gilmore then showed me a 
card written and signed by Mr. Lincoln requesting General Grant 
to aid Mr. Gilmore and friend in passing through his lines into the 
Confederacy. Colonel Jacques then said that his name was not 
put on the card for the reason that it was earnestly desired that 
their visit should be kept secret ; that he had come into the Con- 
federacy a year ago and had visited Petersburg on a similar 
errand, and that it was feared if his name should become known 
that some of those who had formerly met him in Petersburg would 
conjecture the purpose for which he now came. He said that the 
terms of peace which they would ofifer to the President would be 



520 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



honorable to the Confederacy, that they did not desire that the 
Confederacy should accept any other terms, but would be glad to 
have my promise as they gave theirs, that their visit should be 
kept a profound secret if it failed to result in peace ; that it would 
not be just that either party should seek any advantage by divul- 
ging the fact of their overture for peace, if unsuccessful. I assented 
to this request and then rising said, ' Do I understand you to state 
distinctly that you come as messengers from Mr. Lincoln for the 
purpose of agreeing with the President as to the proper mode of 
inaugurating a formal negotiation for peace, charged by Mr. Lin- 
coln with authority for stating his own views and receiving those 
of President ? ' Both answered in the affirmative and I then said 
that the President would see them at my office the same evening 
at 9 p. m., that at least I presumed he would, but if he objected 
after hearing my report they should be informed. They were then 
recommitted to the charge of Colonel Ould with the understanding 
that they were to be reconducted to my office at the appointed 
hour unless otherwise directed. 

" This interview, connected with the report previously made 
by Colonel Ould, left on my mind the decided impression that Mr. 
Lincoln was averse to sending Commissioners to open negotiations 
lest he might thereby be deemed to have recognized the independ- 
ence of the Confederacy, and that he was anxious to learn whether 
the conditions on which alone he would be willing to take such a 
step would be yielded by the Confederacy ; that with this view he 
had placed his messengers in a condition to satisfy us that they 
really came from him, without committing himself to any thing 
in the event of a disagreement as to such conditions as he con- 
sidered to be indispensable. 

" On informing the President therefore of my conclusions, 
he determined that no questions of form or etiquette should be an 
obstacle to his receiving any overtures that promised, however 
remotely, to result in putting an end to the carnage which marked 
the continuance of hostilities. 

" The President came to my office at nine o'clock in the even- 
ing and Colonel Ould came a few moments later with Messrs. 
Jacques and Gilmore. The President said to them that he had 
heard from me that they came as messengers of peace from Mr. 
Lincoln ; that as such they were welcome ; that the Confederacy 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY 3IAS0N. ^21 



had never concealed its desire for peace and that he was ready to 
hear whatever they had to offer on that subject. 

" Mr. Gilmore then addressed the President and in a few 
minutes had conveyed the information that these two gentlemen 
had come to Richmond impressed with the idea that this Govern- 
ment would accept a peace on the basis of a reconstruction of the 
Union, the abolition of slavery and the grant of an amnesty to 
the people of the States as repentant criminals. In order to accom- 
plish the abolition of slavery it was proposed that there should be 
a general vote of all the people of both Federations in mass and 
the majority of the vote thus taken was to determine that as well 
as all other disputed questions. These were stated to be Mr. Lin- 
coln's views. 

" The President answered that as these proposals had been 
prefaced by the remark that the people of the North were a 
majority and that a majority ought to govern, the offer was in 
effect a proposal that the Confederate States should surrender at 
discretion, admit that they had been wrong from the beginning 
of the contest, submit to the mercy of their enemies and avow 
themselves to be in need of pardon for crimes ; that extermination 
was preferable to such dishonor. 

" He stated that if they were themselves so unacquainted with 
the form of their own Government as to make such propositions, 
Mr. Lincoln ought to have known when giving them his views, 
that it was out of the power of the Confederate Government to 
act on the subject of the domestic institutions of the several States, 
each State having exclusive jurisdiction on that point, still less 
to commit the decision of such a question to a vote of a foreign 
people ; that the separation of the States was an accomplished fact ; 
that he had no authority to receive proposals for negotiation except 
by virtue of his office as President of an independent Confederacy, 
and on this basis alone must proposals be made to him. At one 
period of the conversation, Mr. Gilmore made use of some lan- 
guage referring to these States as ' rebels ' while rendering an 
account of Mr. Lincoln's views, and apologized for the word. The 
President desired him to proceed, that no offense was taken, and 
that he wished Mr. Lincoln's language to be repeated to him as 
exactly as possible. Some further conversation took place, sub- 
stantially to the same effect as the foregoing, when the President 



522 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



rose to indicate that the interview was at an end. The two gentle- 
men were then recommitted to the charge of Colonel Ould and 
left Richmond the next day. 

" This account of the visit of Messrs. Gilmore and Jacques to 
Richmond has been rendered necessary by publications made by 
one or both of them since their return to the United States, not- 
withstanding the agreement that their visit was to be kept secret. 
They have perhaps concluded that as the promise of secrecy was 
made at their request, it was permissible to disregard it. 

" We had no reason for desiring to conceal what had occurred, 
and have therefore no complaint to make of the publicity given to 
the fact of the visit. The extreme inaccuracy of Mr. Gilmore's 
narrative will be apparent to you from the foregoing statement. 

" You have no doubt seen in the Northern papers an account 
of another conference on the subject of peace which took place 
in Canada at about the same date between Messrs. C. C. Clay and 
J. P. Holcombe, Confederate citizens of the highest character and 
position, and Mr. Horace Greely, of New York, acting with 
authority of President Lincoln. 

" It is deemed not improper to inform you that Messrs. Clay 
and Holcombe, although enjoying in an eminent degree the con- 
fidence and esteem of the President, were strictly accurate in their 
statement that they were without authority from this Govern- 
ment to treat with that of the United States on any subject what- 
ever. We had no knowledge of their conference with Mr. Greely 
nor of their proposed visit to Washington till we saw the news- 
paper publications. 

" A significant confirmation of the truth of the statement of 
Messrs. Gilmore and Jacques that they came as messengers from 
Mr. Lincoln is to be found in the fact, that the views of Mr. 
Lincoln as stated by them to the President are in exact con- 
formity with the offensive paper addressed to ' Whom it may 
concern ' which was sent by Mr. Lincoln to Messrs. Clay and 
Holcombe by the hands of his private secretary, Mr. Hay, and 
which was properly regarded by those gentlemen as an intimation 
that Mr. Lincoln was unwilling that this war should cease, while 
in his power to continue hostilities. 

" I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. P. BENJAMIN, 

"Secretary of State." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. r^s 



Dispatch No. 14. 

" Paris, November loth, 1864. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : In my No. 13 of the 29th September, I informed you 
that neither Mr. Slidell nor I had received the copies of the 
manifesto of Congress spoken of in your circular of the 25th of 
August, and which we first saw reprinted in the Northern journals 
from Richmond papers. Since my dispatch of the 13th September 
the circular arrived, and I at once communicated with Mr. Slidell 
and Colonel Mann as to the proper mode of carrying out the 
request of Congress that they should be laid before foreign Gov- 
ernments ' by the Commissioners abroad.' Some little delay 
occurred as we thought it best to await the arrival of the last mail 
from Bermuda, which might bring the copies from your Depart- 
ment and probably with specific instructions, but nothing came. 
It was considered by us an occasion on which the duty imposed on 
the Commissioners by the request of Congress should be dis- 
charged in a formal and becoming manner, and we met at Paris a 
few days since, to determine the mode. The broad expression in 
the resolution of Congress that the manifesto should be laid before 
foreign governments led us to consider, in the absence of instruc- 
tions, that it would be proper to communicate it to all the principal 
powers, namely — England, France, Prussia, Austria, Belgium, the 
Swiss Confederation. Denmark, the kingdom of Italy, Holland, 
Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Rome ; and the mode — that the 
manifesto should be neatly engrossed by a skilful writer, in good 
but plain penmanship, on suitable paper of rather more than dis- 
patch size — a copy to be sent addressed to the proper Minister of 
State of each one of those powers, accompanied by a joint note of 
the Commissioners to the Minister, of which I send you a copy 
herewith. To France and Belgium, this note, with the manifesto 
will be presented by Mr. Slidell and Mr. Mann respectively ; to 
each of the other Governments it will be borne by one or the other 
of the Secretaries of the Commissioners. The manifesto is cer- 
tainly a most able and impressive paper, and the request of Con- 
gress that it should be laid before foreign governments, as emana- 
ting from that body, we thought an occasion sufficiently grave and 
important to require that it should be done in a manner, and with 



r24 I'IPE (>^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



the ceremonial adopted. The papers are now nearly ready, and 
will be sent off in the course of one or two days ; and I hope what 
is done will have the approval of your Department. 

" I am gratified to learn that the Seal arrived safely, and it 
was followed, I hope, speedily by the boxes containing the 
materials for its use. 

" In regard to your remarks on my late conversation with 
Lord Palmerston, after the distinct and repeated refusal of his 
Government to recognize the independence of the South — made 
the principal reason for terminating the mission to England. I 
did not, of course, directly or indirectly intimate to him that we 
yet asked it. I have not a copy of the memorandum of the con- 
versation with me in Paris, but have a strong recollection that 
the course of conversation admitting it, I made the direct point 
that recognition at any time by any principal power of Europe, 
and without other act on their part, would stop the war. You 
are right, however, in your remark that in despite of all evidence 
and reason to the contrary, England, at least, ' affects to consider 
that such recognition would be of no value, unless followed by 
active intervention.' Nor is this peculiar to the Government. The 
public men of that country seem unable or unwilling to divest 
themselves of such belief; the true reason can only be that they 
use it as an evasion of the duty incumbent on their Government 
under every principle of public law, because of the latent fear 
that it will involve them in war. You will have seen in the later 
English papers that the distress in the manufacturing districts is 
again exhibiting itself to an extent causing much alarm, with the 
prospect of its even exceeding in intensity, this winter, the experi- 
ence of the last two years. This, with the great derangement in 
commerce, and the pressure consequent thereon in the money 
market, may not be without its effect in our favour when Parlia- 
ment meets in February. 

" Colonel Mann, who is here, tells me that he thinks a reaction 
is strongly setting in, in Germany, which will have the effect of 
throwing back upon the United States very large amounts of their 
public securities that were taken up in that country, under the 
attraction of the high rate of interest brought about by the rate 
of exchange. I have thought of going, for a time, to Frankfort- 
on-the-Main entirely as a private gentleman, to see what may be 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^25 

done in aid of such catastrophe ; and, perhaps, I can be useful, 
also, in discouraging emigration from that country under the 
fraudulent practices there of Northern agents. 

" Captain Morris, late Commander of the ' Florida,' has just 
reached here, and made his official report to Commodore Barron, 
of the base and cowardly act of the commander of the ' Wachu- 
setts ' — taking advantage of the absence of one-half the crew of 
the ' Florida ' on shore-leave at night, to overpower the remainder 
and seize the ship. I have sent the report to be published through 
the Index in the English and other European journals ; and you 
will have seen it in reprint in the New York papers before this 
reaches you. It is thought by some that England and France will 
come to the aid of Brazil in a demand for full reparation to that 
power, though I doubt whether this intervention will extend 
beyond a formal protest against the act, as a precedent. 

" I have, etc., etc., 

" J. M. MASON. 

" P. S. — Since the foregoing was written it was determined 
on further consideration to change the mode of communicating 
the manifesto to the different governments — instead of sending it 
by a special messenger to each court, they will be transmitted 
through the Legations of each at Paris by the agency of Mr. 
Slidell. 

" J. M. M." 

Dispatch No. 15. 

" London, December i6th, 1864. 

" Hon J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I have now the honor to send you herewith a dupli- 
cate of my No. 14, and also a copy of a letter from Earl Russell 
acknowledging the joint note of Messrs. Slidell, Mann, andmyself, 
communicating to him a copy of the manifesto of Congress. You 
will have seen it long since, doubtless, together with the note to 
which it was in reply, through the Northern press, I have thought 
it proper, nevertheless, to send a formal copy for the records of 
the Department. It has been generally thought here that there 
is in it some relaxation in tone if contrasted with his usual style 
when writing or speaking of the Confederate States, which may 



52<5 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



mean something or nothing. Where he speaks, for example, of 
' the struggle between the Northern and Southern States of the 
formerly United Republic of North America.' 

" I do not myself attach much importance to it. It is the 
only reply received from the Minister of any court to which the 
manifesto was communicated. 

" A few days since, I received from Canada a letter from 
Mr, James D. Westcott, formerly Senator of the United States 
from Florida ; and with it a printed copy of the proceedings and 
evidence, so far as they had gone, in the case of Lieutenant Young 
and others, claimed for extradition by the Government of the 
United States, on a charge of felony committed by them in their 
late attack on St. Albans, Vermont. Mr. Westcott's letter was 
dated from Montreal, where he said he had gone to attend the 
trial as the friend of Mr. Wallace, one of the parties charged. 
His letter was dated the 14th November ; and it appeared that time 
had been allowed the prisoners to the 13th December to obtain 
evidence on their behalf from Richmond. It also appeared that 
Lieutenant Young exhibited in evidence his commission as Lieu- 
tenant in the army of the Confederate States, with authority to 
enlist a given number of men beyond the limits of the Confederacy 
for special service, and he, with his companions being allowed 
to make declarations in court, stated that their plans were con- 
cocted at Chicago and that what they had done had been in 
execution of their military orders. It was thus clearly shown that 
their acts were acts of war, and in no possible sense could be 
treated as an offense within the treaty. Mr. Westcott informed 
me that Mr. J. J. Abbott, formerly Solicitor-General of Canada, 
was their principal counsel. I can hardly conceive that the deci- 
sion in Canada will be adverse to the prisoners, yet, considering 
that nothing should be left undone which might possibly inure to 
their safety, I thought it prudent here to lay the papers before 
Sir Hugh Cairns, at present probably the most distinguished jurist 
at the bar. My object was, in advance, if possible, of the decision 
in Canada to put Mr. Abbott professionally in communication 
with Sir Hugh, with a view to have the defense so conducted as 
to provide for an appeal to the courts in England, if the result in 
Canada should make it necessary ; and I wrote by the earliest mail, 
and told Mr. Abbott of the retainer of Sir Hugh with a request 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 527 

that he would communicate with him in the view I had men- 
tioned.* 

" I have received an address from the ' Southern Independ- 
ence Association ' at Manchester to the President of the Con- 
federate States signed by its Executive Committee, with a request 
that I would transmit it to the President. It congratulates him on 
the success of our arms, expresses entire confidence that our in- 
dependence is achieved, and fully approves the proposed plan 
of arming the slaves, should the same be found necessary to 
recruit the armies. It shall be sent by the first convenient oppor- 
tunity, and I have so informed the committee. This association is 
the largest, as it is the most active and energetic, of any that 
have been formed for agitation in our behalf. The accompany- 
ing sheet, containing the names of its officers, etc., will show the 

*Extract from the Quebec Mornitig Chronicle of October 26th, 1864. 
"We have just received the following letter from Lieutenant Bennett H. 
Young, commanding the party of raiders on St. Albans, and hasten to give 
it the publication asked for it, with no other comment than that it in no re- 
spect changes our previously expressed opinions : 

" ' Freelighsburg, East Canada, Oct. 21st, 1864. 
" ' To the Editor of the Evening Telegraph. 

" ' Through the columns of your journal I wish to make some statements 
to the people of Canada in regard to recent operations in Vermont. I went 
there for the purpose of burning the town and surrounding villages, as a re- 
taliation for recent outrages in Shenandoah Valley and elsewhere in the 
Confederate States. I am a commissioned officer in the ' Provisional Army 
of the Confederate States,' and violating no law in Canada. I do not wish 
my name connected with the epithets now applied without a knowledge on 
the part of the people as to who we were and why our action. I wish, also, 
to make a few statements as to how myself and party were taken. I was 
seized on Canadian soil by American citizens, with arms in their hands, 
and violently searched ; my pocketbook taken, and I forcibly placed in a 
buggy between two men and started towards the United States. I reached 
out my hand and caught the rein, when three pistols were leveled at my 

head, with threats to shoot the 'd n scoundrel ' dead if he moved. Some 

Canadian citizens then spoke up, and seeing a bailiff, they started with me 
towards him, two of them holdmg arms in their hands. These statements 
can be proved by Canadian citizens. Bands of American citizens came into 
this place, and even beyond it, brandishing their guns and attempting to kill 
some of us after we were in the hands of the British authorities. _ Surely the 
people of Vermont must have forgotten that you are not in the midst of war, 
and ruled by a man despotic in his actions and supreme in his infamy ! I arn 
not afraid to go before the courts of Canada; and when the affair is investi- 
gated, I am satisfied they, not my party, will be found the violators of Can- 
adian and English law. Some one, I hope, will be sent to investigate this 
breach of neutrality, and award to those American citizens doing armed 
duty in Canada the just merit of their transgression. 
" ' Hoping you will give this a publication. 
" ' I remain, etc., 
(Signed) " ' BENNETT H. YOUNG, 

" 'First Lieutenant P.A.C. S.' " 



528 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



general character of its material. The address is handsomely 
engrossed in parchment in the illuminated style. 
'' I have the honor to be, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

Dispatch No. i6. 

" London, January 12th, 1865. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I learned some two weeks since from Mr. Slidell 
that the French Government had made a proposition to the 
British Government, that each power should permit our prizes, 
having cargo, in whole or in part, claimed as property of the 
subjects of either, to be taken for adjudication into the ports of 
either respectively. So far, I learn, the only answer received 
was that it had been referred to the Crown lawyers. In the very 
sensitive attitude held by the British Government towards the 
United States, manifestly afraid of incurring the slightest risk 
of their displeasure, I have little idea that the British Govern- 
ment will assent to the proposal. Its being equitable, just, and 
reasonable, will weigh nothing with Her Majesty's Government 
against the possible risk of rupture with the United States. In 
the Times of yesterday you will observe an elaborate criticism 
by the noted ' Historicus ' of the recent instructions issued by your 
Department for the governance of our cruisers in regard to 
neutral property found tinder the enemy's flag, and the converse. 
It is written, as you will find, in bad temper and spirit, with a 
threat of ' punishment ' by England, should the instructions be 
carried out in practice. The writer, as I learn, is Mr. Vernon 
Harcoiirt, a barrister of ability, and connection by marriage of 
the late Sir George Cornwall Lewis, Secretary of War; and 
who is now himself one of the Crown lawyers, though not of the 
three officials who are the responsible law advisers of the Gov- 
ernment, his province being, under official appointment, the 
adviser in questions that are of penal or criminal, and not of a 
political character. But I think it would follow that, on important 
questions of the latter class he would be taken into counsel. I 
can not but think, therefore, that his paper in the Times is in- 
tended to be a vindication in advance of the refusal of the Govern- 
ment to the proposal from the French Emperor. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. 



529 



" I have little to add to what I have heretofore reported in 
regard to matters in England. I see some of their public men from 
time to time, and have been kindly received at their homes in 
the country. They continue to express, and, I am satisfied, to 
feel, the same interest as ever in our success in the war ; but I am 
not aware that there is any increased disposition, either with 
Liberals or Conservatives, to overrule the policy of the Admin- 
istration. 

" It may be as well to state that in a private note from Mr. 
L. Q. Washington, dated the 8th November, he informed me 
that whatever dispatches were on board the ' Condor ' had been 
lost with Mrs. Greenhow, 

" In a note from Colonel Mann, dated Brussels, 5th instant, 
he says : ' The Federal bonds are very buoyant, as well here 
as at Amsterdam and Frankfort, under the influence of the intet- 
ligence of our reverses in Tennessee and Georgia, but no new 
arrivals have occurred, nor are any likely to occur. The markets 
are quite as full as they will bear.' The Federal treasury, it 
would seem, admitting that hereafter its receipts in coin will bt 
scarce equal to payment of interest in gold-bearing securities 
already issued, has determined to discontinue that form of 
security and to rely on a new issue, with interest. payable in cur- 
rency. This is a confession of weakness that I think must alarm 
bondholders in Europe. It is very certain that in England, and so 
far as I can learn everywhere in Europe, with capitalists or 
fundholders they can not place a dollar. 

" Mr. Slidell will have sent you, of course, the replies, so 
far as received, to our joint note communicating the Manifesto of 
Congress to the European powers. They were sent to him 
because our note was transmitted by him through the Embas- 
sies of those powers at Paris. So far, three only have been re- 
ceived, and they have been published here, the sooner to reach our 
Government. They amount, as you will have seen, to nothing 
substantial ; though it would appear from the Northern press 
that some forms of expression in the note of Lord Russell is 
strongly excepted to by the Yankees. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 



rjQ LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

Dispatch No. 17. 

" London, January 21st, 1865. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I avail myself of the mail via Halifax to Bermuda,' 
leaving to-day, to send you herewith a duplicate of my No. 16, 
of the 1 2th January instant. 

" I have nothing to report of interest since that date, nor 
have I yet been able to learn what answer, if any, has been given 
by this Government to the proposal of France mentioned in my 
last, for the admission of our prizes having neutral cargo into the 
ports of either power for adjudication. No answer has been 
received by the French Government so late as the 8th instant, as 
I learn by a note from Mr. Slidell. 

" In regard to what is said in my last dispatch about the 
strictures of ' Historicus ' through the Times, on the late in- 
structions from your Department for the governance of our 
cruisers at sea, I observed, in a few days afterwards, an able and 
decided ' leader ' in the Morning Post, reviewing and condemning 
the position assumed by ' Historicus,' and fully sustaining those 
taken in the instructions. A slip containing it, I understand from 
Mr. Hotze, was sent to you by the last mail via Nassau. The 
Post, as you are probably aware, is generally considered as the 
particular exponent of Lord Palmerston, w^hich may give some 
significance to the article, 

" The rumors lately prevalent, coming from the South, of a 
purpose to increase our military forces by arming a large body 
of slaves, sustained by a portion of the press there, and said 
to have the countenance of General Lee, has attracted much atten- 
tion in England ; and many inquiries have been made of me by 
our well-wishers whether I thought it would be done. It is con- 
sidered by them with much favor as a measure carrying large aux- 
iliaries to our armies, whilst in their opinion it would be a first 
step toward emancipation. I have answered that I had no doubt 
that the matter was looked on at the South as a question of ex- 
pediency only ; that our people would have no fear of bringing 
our slaves into the field to an enemy common alike to them and 
to their masters; nor did I doubt that our slaves would make 
better soldiers in our ranks than in those of the North. Yet that 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



531 



there were strong objections which I thought would lead the 
Government not to resort to this reserve force unless it was con- 
sidered necessary to bring our armies to some required standard. 
That the objections, as they presented themselves to me were, first, 
that it would diminish our agricultural labor for a time, and 
secondly, that should it be thought incumbent, after the war, to 
offer freedom to those who took part in it, great mischief and in- 
convenience would result from any increase in the number of 
flee blacks amongst us; and thus, I thought the question would 
turn ultimately upon the inquiry whether the demand for men in 
the army was sufficient to overcome the objections stated. I have 
thought it best to keep you an courant as to opinion here on a 
policy so interesting to us. 

" The signal and disastrous failure of the enemy off Wil- 
mington came very opportunely to affect the current of opinion 
here in regard to our prospects after the successful march of 
Sherman, and his possession of Savannah, with the reverses that 
seemed to attend the campaign of General Hood. 
" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J.M.MASON." 

The following correspondence relates to a subject, the treat- 
ment of Northern soldiers in Southern prisons, that has been fre- 
quently misrepresented. It is copied from a newspaper clipping 
that was preserved by Mr. Mason among other material for 
history : 

" To the Editor of the Times: 

" As part of the political history of the times, the corres- 
pondence I transmit herewith may have sufficient significance to 
call for its publication. I submit it to you accordingly for a. 
place in your columns. 

" I am, sir, etc., 

"J. M. MASON, 
"24 Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square, London. 

"Boston, December 15th, 1864. 
"Mr. J. M. Mason, London. 

" Sir : I take the liberty of sending you a pamphlet pub- 
lished by the United States Sanitary Commission on the treatment 



C02 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



of Northern prisoners at the South. I beg you will look through 
it. 

" I send it to you, sir, believing that you yourself are not 
aware of this state of things, and that you occupy a position which 
may enable you indirectly to ameliorate this appalling suffering. 
" I am, sir, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

".A. COOLIDGE. 
"65 Marlborough Street, Boston, Mass." 

" London, January 25th, 1865. 

"A. Coolidge, Esq., Boston, Massachusetts. 

" Sir : I have your letter of December 15th, with the volume 
accompanying it, entitled a ' Narrative of Privation and Sufferings 
of United States Officers and Soldiers while Prisoners of War 
in the Hands of the Rebel Authorities. Being the Report of a 
Commission of Inquiry appointed by the United States Sanitary 
Commission.' 

" In your letter you ' beg ' that I ' will look through it,' and 
say that you sent it to me, believing that I am ' not aware of this 
state of things,' and may have it in my power ' indirectly to 
ameliorate this appalling suffering.' I am thus to infer from 
your letter that you think the contents of the volume are entitled 
to my credence. I have looked through it, and have looked also 
at the pictures that adorn it, which are alleged to be photographic 
illustrations of the emaciated forms of certain of the prisoners 
returned from the Confederate States. This form of pictorial 
literature would seem almost peculiar to the country to which you 
belong, and, as would appear, is known alike to its humanitarians 
and its statesmen ; for it so happens that about the time the 
volume of the Sanitary Commission came from you I received 
from another quarter another volume of like grade, and prepared 
for a like purpose, entitled ' Reports of the Committee on the 
Conduct of the War — Fort Pillow Massacre — Returned Prison- 
ers,' a document issued by the Congress of the United States; 
and this volume, too, is adorned with like pictorial illustrations. 
As I understand, in the vocabulary of your country, the class of 
literature to which both these volumes belong, is called the ' sen- 
sation style,' and is adapted to that class of readers whose con- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^^^ 

victions are to be reached by fraudulent practicings on their 
intellect. As noted examples of similar productions, I will recall 
to you ' Uncle Tom's Cabin,' by Mrs. Stowe, one of your country- 
women, and a book, the title of which I have forgotten, but 
familiarly known in the circles of your country as ' Helper's 
Book,' both illustrated by pictorial sketchings. But I am to deal 
now with the volume the ' Sanitary Commission ' : the others, 
having each done the dirty work of their day, are laid by to 
serve with the volume in hand as authentic materials for future 
history by some New England historian. 

" None can read the work of the Sanitary Commission with- 
out seeing that it was written for a very different purpose than 
that of ameliorating by its labors the suffering and privation 
ascribed in it to prisoners of war in the Confederate States ; nor 
will the character of the gentlemen, whatever that may be, who 
give it their sanction as a committee, with the long array of titles 
annexed to their respective names, rescue it from such imputa- 
tion. Its true character is that of a political work, and of the 
lowest type, intended to excite and inflame the popular mind at 
the North by false and exaggerated pictures of the privations 
and sufferings of Northern soldiers held as prisoners at the South. 
The narrative carries with it intrinsic evidence that it is from a 
pen long practiced in the unscrupulous school to which it belongs ; 
indeed, the writer seems to have considered it necessary to account 
in some way for the peculiar style of a work professedly of pure 
humanity. He calls it, at page 24, the ' dramatic development 
of the inquiry ' of the Sanitary Commission — in which all the 
' salient points of the evidence/ with the results of their own 
observations, are incorporated together. In other words, the 
evidence and the so-styled results of observation were to be 
grouped and colored for political effect. 

" Now, on the subject of the treatment of prisoners, either 
at the North or South, I have no information but that which comes 
to us through the public prints; but I am fully aware that the 
condition of prisoners of war, wherever they may be, must of 
necessity be attended with privation and suffering, and necessarily 
more so in the South, whatsoever care can be extended to them, 
from the atrocious manner in which the war is waged by those 
who conduct vour armies in my country. 



--. LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" Your Sanitary Commission complains that they are stinted 
in food ; that it is bad in quality ; are not sufficiently clothed, and, 
when sick, they are not treated with sufficient and proper medi- 
cine ; and this in the face of the notorious fact that wherever your 
armies penetrate they are ordered to burn and destroy everything 
that contributes to the food and raiment of man — an order most 
relentlessly obeyed ; and, as if to add to the infamy of such prac- 
tices, all medicines, surgical instruments, and whatever could 
minister to the sick or wounded in the hospitals, your Government 
has declared and treated as contraband of war, with orders that 
they be destroyed 'wherever found — orders that are invariably 
obeyed. Whole regions of the Southern country have thus been 
ruthlessly laid waste. As a single example, let me recall the 
recent instances in the Valley of the Shenandoah, a country teem- 
ing with population and of unrivalled fertility. 

" In its late retreat your army devastated the entire country 
through which it passed, its General boasting in his official report 
that he had burned in his progress two thousand barns filled with 
the harvesting of the year ; that he had burned all the mills in that 
whole tract of country, destroyed all the factories of cloth, and 
killed or driven ofT every animal, even to the poultry, that could 
contribute to human sustenance, in an extent of country some 
sixty miles long and from thirty to forty wide. Cut off to a 
great extent by your blockade from the importation of foreign 
salt, it is the boast of your generals that military parties are 
organized to destroy our salt factories wherever found, either on 
the seaboard or in the interior ; and very recently we have accounts 
exultantly presented, of destruction done at Saltville, in South- 
western Virginia, extending to the breaking up of the kettles 
used in its manufacture, and despoiling the salt wells. There is 
but one step of greater infamy against your fellowman — I 
should not say greater, for it is the equal only — and that would be 
to poison the water in the streams. In the face of such notorious 
facts your ' Sanitary Commission ' has the effrontery to complain 
to the world that the prisoners of war in the South are stinted in 
food, badly clothed, their health impaired from want of salt, and 
death frequent in the hospitals from the failure to supply the 
proper medicines. I desire to say to you, then, that I can give 
no credit to the report of your Sanitary Commission. Little as 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^o^ 

ex-parte testimony is proverbially entitled to belief, it is still less 
so in the hands of those interested by their own showing^ to 
deceive, and who resort for their witnesses to a class of men who 
are thus described by an authority in your own country whom 
neither you nor they, on this subject, at least, dare discredit. 
The editor of the New York Times, speaking of the character of 
the recruits sent to your army on the James River in Virginia, 
as substitutes for drafted men, and from information derived from 
a correspondent with the Federal army at City Point, describes 
them as ' wretched vagabonds, depraved in morals, or decrepit 
in body, without courage, self-respect or conscience. * * * 
They desert when put on picket duty, they skulk in action, and 
are dirty, disorderly, thievish, and incapable in camp, and pass 
most of their time on barrels tied up to trees, or bucked and 
gagged.' Of such materials is your army in Virginia, and from 
such materials your Sanitary Commission could be at no loss for 
witnesses in their ' dramatic development.' You will find this 
agreeable picture of 3'our own troops in the New York Times 
of January 6th, 1865. 

" To its further discredit, I know that the batch of prisoners 
whose emaciated forms supplied the materials for its pictorial 
illustrations, were the sick brought from the hospitals in Rich- 
mond under the cruel policy of your Government to make no 
exchanges except of the sick. Your Sanitary Commission might, 
and with as good grace and as much fairness, have the patients 
in the worst form of disease from your public charities, exhibited 
in photograph as evidence of inhuman treatment at such hos- 
pitals. But it is waste of time to attempt to refute these calum- 
nious imputations. Those to whom they are addressed in your 
country do not desire to be undeceived. When first propagated, 
some year or two ago, pains were taken in the South, through the 
aid of disinterested and impartial observers, to have the real con- 
dition of prisoners at the South enquired into and laid before the 
world. Their statements were in true keeping with what was the 
acknowledged duty of a humane and Christian people, and in 
accordance with the established rules of civilized warfare. The 
rations allowed to prisoners were the same in quantity and quality 
as those given to our own soldiers in the field ; nor was there any 
scarcity with the former which was not shared equally by our own 
soldiers. 



536 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" What my own countrymen are suffering in your Northern 
prisons we are seldom allowed to know ; but even since the receipt 
of your letter we have some striking evidence of what their con- 
dition is, in the teeth of the statement of your Sanitary Commis- 
sion, as to the treatment of our prisoners at the North. I would 
refer you on this head to a letter from Joseph Taylor, of a Louis- 
iana regiment, addressed to Lord Wharncliffe, and published in 
the Evening Standard at London, dated at Barnsley (England), 
January 5th, 1865, brought out by Mr. Seward's late letter, in 
which he permits himself to say that prisoners of war at the 
North are suffering no privations, and that appeal for relief or 
charity at home or abroad is tmnecessary. Taylor speaks ' from 
an experience of several months in Fort Delaware ' ; the prisoners 
then averaged there from 6,000 to 7,000. ' The rations were 
always irregular, sometimes two ounces of meat per day, some- 
times none. Soup was given at times, but such stuff that the 
most robust stomach could not take it ; the consequences were that 
a large proportion of the men were reduced almost to skeletons.' 
He says that the prisoners were worse treated when guarded by 
the militia than when by the ' regular soldiers,' and adds : ' The 
cruelties practiced by the former were such as would scarcely be 
believed, even if the work of savages ; that the relief proposed by 
your Lordship and friends would have been the means of saving 
life I have not the slightest doubt.' 

" This man, it appears by a note of the editor, resides in 
Barnsley, was taken prisoner at Gettysburg, was confined in Fort 
Delaware for seven months, and released on terms that he would 
give aid in no form to the Confederates and would leave the 
country. 

" Again, I refer you to a letter published in the Nezv York 
Daily News of January 3d, dated at Chicago, December 27th. 
The editor vouches for the writer * as a lady of unquestionable 
veracity, great purity of character, and true Christian charity.' 

" She speaks of the condition of prisoners, 6,000 to 8.000 
in number, confined at ' Rock Island ' ; says that ' the allowance 
to each man has been one small loaf of bread — it takes three to 
make a pound — and a piece of meat two inches square per day. 
This was the ration ; lately it has been reduced, and they are trap- 
ping rats and mice for food, actually to save life ; many of them 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. 



537 



are nearly naked, barefooted, bareheaded, and without bedclothes ; 
each day their number growing less by death — their only merciful 
visitor.' She adds that charitable persons ' have sent supplies 
of clothing to these prisoners, but they have not been permitted 
to reach them.' Again, please refer to a letter from three of the 
surgeons, prisoners of war at Johnson's Island, dated November 
1 6th, and addressed to the Colonel commanding the post, pub- 
lished in the New York Daily Nezvs, January 7th. It concludes 
thus : ' It is our solemn conviction that if the inmates of this 
prison are compelled to subsist for the winter upon this reduced 
ration of 10 ounces less than health demands and 6 ounces less 
than Colonel Hoffman's order allows, all must suffer the horrors 
of continued hunger, and many must die from the most loath- 
some diseases.' Again, in the same paper, on the 5th page, is an 
article headed ' Treatment of Prisoners of War,' a communication 
alleged by the editor to be from ' one of our most respectable 
citizens, whose address is in our possession.' 

" It refers to the prisoners on Rock Island, and states that 
those who refuse to enlist in the Federal service ' are kept on 
starvation rations, and are often reduced to rats, dogs, putrid 
meat, and other repulsive food picked out of slops.' It contains, 
too, a letter of one of the prisoners, giving the reason why he 
enlisted with the enemy. He says : ' You will say that I had 
better have died than dishonor myself. I would have said so, 
too, a year ago, but no one who has not been placed as I have 
been placed should judge me harshly. I had lingering starvation 
before me from day to day, from week to week, until I scarcely 
knew what I was doing. I was dying by inches. To escape a 
loathsome death, I enlisted ; but it is expressly stated in my enlist- 
ment that I am not to fight against my own people.' The com- 
munication to the Daily Nczvs concludes as follows : 'It is a hor- 
rible truth that there are now in our military prisons nearly 
fifty thousand prisoners of war undergoing the tortures of pro- 
tracted starvation, denied all relief from without — even the pur- 
chasing with their own money the food essential to life and health.' 

" These cumulative proofs may explain the reason why Mr. 
Seward refused to allow an agent from England to visit the 
military prisons at the North as preliminary to the proper dis- 
pensation of the large fund contributed by English benevolence 



53S 



LIFE OF JAME8 MURRAY MASON. 



for the relief of those confined in them ; but in view of their pri- 
vation and want, what can excuse, before the Christian world, his 
refusal to allow that relief to reach them in any form? 

" And now, to close this reply, already too long — tell your 
Sanitary Commission, if they be really in earnest to bring relief 
to their countrymen alleged to be suffering as prisoners in the 
Confederate States, to address themselves to their own Govern- 
ment, by whose act alone those prisoners remain in confinement. 

" Let your Government renew the system of exchanges 
under existing cartels which they have for more than two years 
fraudulently evaded. At the commencement of the war your Gov- 
ernment affected to consider those of my countrymen who fell 
into their hands as traitors worthy only a traitor's doom, nor was 
it until the balance of prisoners was largely on the Confederate 
side that a system of exchanges was agreed to. Though a large 
creditor, the Confederate Government framed a cartel on the 
most liberal basis, and by a solemn convention between the two 
Governments that cartel was adopted. It provided for the release 
of all prisoners on parole ten days after their capture, and an im- 
mediate exchange to follow — the excess on either side to remain 
on parole for future exchange. In July, 1863, after the fall of 
Vicksburg and Port Hudson, the balance of prisoners, for the 
first time, was against the Confederates, and from that time forth, 
under all manner of subterfuges, your Government refused ex- 
changes on the basis of the cartel. All these facts are set forth in 
the correspondence between Robert Ould, Confederate Agent of 
Exchange, with your General Meredith, Major Mulford, and 
Major-General Hitchcock, at various times Federal Agents of 
Exchange, commencing in October, 1863, and terminating August 
31st, 1864, published in the papers at Richmond and reproduced in 
those at New York. That correspondence shows how earnestly 
and persistently the Confederate Government sought to obtain by 
exchanges the mutual release of all prisoners — consenting even 
to waive the strict terms of the cartel when the balance of 
prisoners was against the Confederates — and how persistently 
and by what fraudulent evasions your Government refused. And 
thus it has resulted that, at last accounts, there were some sixty 
thousand of your countrymen prisoners of war in the Confed- 
erate States and remaining there solely because of the refusal of 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



539 



your Government to receive them back. This monstrous and 
cruel policy on their part can have but one solution. It was 
known that every man sent back to us would at once return to 
the field, whilst on your side the term of enlistment of far the 
major part of the prisoners had expired, and of the rest, few had 
any further stomach for the fight. If your Sanitary Commission, 
therefore, is sincere in its denunciation of the Confederate authori- 
ties for their alleged maltreatment of their countrymen prisoners 
of war, with what execration should they visit their own Govern- 
ment for thus inhumanly and voluntarily abandoning them to their 

captivity. 

" I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

" J. M. MASON. 
" P. S. — I shall commit this correspondence to the press in 

London, 

" J. M. M." 



^^Q LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Expectation of Peace Aroused in England by Reports from North- 
Dispatch from Department on " Our Foreign Relations "• -Are the West- 
ern Powers of Europe Determined Never to Recognize Confederate States 
Until United States Assents?— Vindication of Right to Self-Government 
is Sole Object of War — Prisoners in St. Alban's Case Released — Earl Rus- 
sell's Communication to Commissioners, and their Reply^Would Any 
Concessions Regarding Slavery Secure Recognition? — Mr. Mason's Inter- 
view With Lord Palmerstonon this Subject— His Conversation with Lord 
Donoughmore — Letter to Col. Mann — Dispatch of May ist — Assassina- 
tion of Lincoln — Stanton's Dispatch to Adams— Mason's Denial of Stan- 
ton's Charge of CorCfederate Complicity— Proclamation of President John- 



" London, February, 1865.* 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I send by Lieutenant Fitzhugh Carter, who bears 
this, an address by the ' Southern Independence Association ' 
of Manchester, to the President. It will be seen by the names 
attached to the address that the association comprises a body of 
influential g-entlemen. Should the President deem it proper to 
send a reply, I shall be most happy in being the medium of com- 
municating it. 

" I hear nothing since my last in regard to the proposal 
therein referred to — said to have been made by France to Eng- 
land for the admission of our prizes into their ports, having cargo 
on board claiming to be neutral ; and much doubt whether any- 
thing will come of it. 

" We have heard here with great concern of the capture of 
Fort Fisher and other defences protecting the port of Wilmington, 
but our troops made a gallant and great defense, and whatever 
the loss to us, its conquest has been at great cost to the enemy. 
Yet, beyond the disaster, we are cheered and elevated here by the 
defiant tone of the South, with the renewed declaration of Con- 
gress that the war will be prosecuted to independence at whatever 
cost or hazard. Public expectation has been much aroused in 
England by the reiterated reports from the North that peace was 
*Date accidentally omitted in the original draft of the dispatch. 



LIFE OF J AM EH MURRAY MASON. 



541 



at hand, coupled with the late visits of Mr. Blair to Richmond, and 
his alleged reception by the President. I have said in reply to 
inquiries, that if these things meant a peace, it would be on over- 
tures from the North resulting from its inability to continue the 
war, because their men had no longer any stomach for the fight, 
and because of impending bankruptcy. 

" Notwithstanding our late reverses, the Confederate loan 
maintains itself comparatively well, the last quotation being from 
55 to 56, when shortly before the fall of Fort Fisher it had fallen 
to 52-54. 

" Parliament meets to-morrow ; but I have no reason to 
anticipate any modification in the policy of the Ministry toward us. 
Still, as we have a large body of earnest friends and sympathizers 
in both Houses, it may be that something will arise during the 
session of which advantage may be taken. 

" The port of Wilmington being no longer open, I fear that 
communication wnll be seriously impeded. I shall continue to 
write, nevertheless, by the mails to Bermuda and Nassau, under 
cover to our agents there, and by good private opportunities 
when they offer. 

" I have nothing from the Department since the receipt of 
your circular of the loth October, acknowledged in my No. 17. 
" I have the honor to be, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

"From jf. P. Benjamin, Secretary State, to J. M. Mason, Commis- 
sioner Confederate States to Great Britain. 

" Department of State, 
" Richmond, 30th December, 1864. 

" Sir : Since my No. 38, of 20th September last, I am 
without any further intelligence from you, than your No. 13. of 
29th September, which was received on the 5th instant, and your 
letter from Leamington, of the i8th September, also received on 
the 5th instant. The boxes containing the press, etc., etc., for 
the use of the Seal of the Confederacy have not yet arrived, and 
I would be obliged if you will endeavor to have them traced, and 
that they may be duplicated, if unfortunately lost, as I fear is 
the case. 



^^2 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" I wrote yesterday to Mr. Slidell on the subject of our for- 
eign relations in the following terms: 

" 'The Confederate States have now for nearly four years 
resisted the utmost power of the United States with a courage 
and fortitude to which the world has accorded its respect and 
admiration. No people have poured out their blood more freely 
in defense of their liberties and independence, nor have endured 
sacrifices with greater cheerfulness than have the men and women 
of these Confederate States. 

" ' They accepted the issue which was forced on them by an 
arrogant and domineering race, vengeful, grasping, and ambitious. 
They have asked nothing, fought for nothing, but for the right of 
self-government, for independence. 

" ' If this contest had been waged against the United States 
alone, we feel that it would long since have ceased: that we had 
not miscalculated our power of resistance against the great pre- 
ponderance of numbers and resources at the command of our 
enemies, and that they would already have acknowledged the 
failure of their schemes of conquest. But we freely avow that 
when we engaged in the unequal struggle to which we committed 
our lives and fortunes, we did not anticipate that the United States 
would'receive from foreign nations the aid, comfort, and assist- 
ance which have been lavished upon them by the Western powers 
of Europe. 

" 'Conscious, for reasons presently to be stated, that we were 
fighting the battles of France and England, it could not enter into 
our calculations that one of the consequences of our action would 
be the abandonment by those two powers of all their rights as 
neutrals : their countenance of a blockade, which, when declared, 
was the most shameless outrage on international law that modern 
times have witnessed; their closing their ports to the entry of 
prizes made by our vessels of war ; their efforts to prevent our 
getting supplies in their ports ; their seizure of every vessel in- 
tended for our service that could be reached by them ; and their 
indifference to the spectacle of a people (while engaged in an 
unequal struggle for defense) exposed to the invasion not only 
of the superior numbers of their adversaries, but of armies of 
mercenaries imported from neutral nations to subserve the guilty 
projects of our foes. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^^j 



" 'I have said that we were fighting the battles of France 
and England, and it requires but little reflection to reach this 
conclusion : The sentiments of the people of the United States 
towards France and England have been known for too long a 
period to permit a doubt of the aggressive policy which will be 
pursued by the Northern Government on the first favorable occa- 
sion. 

" ' No opportunity is lost by that Government for giving 
expression to the feeling prevalent in the country, not only among 
the masses, but among those placed high in authority. Look at 
the contemptuous disdain of Mr. Lincoln's recent message towards 
France. Mark the insolent irony with which he caricatures the 
conduct of the Emperor in our war, by declaring that in Mexico 
' the neutrality of the United States between the belligerents has 
been strictly maintained,' and then consider the platform of prin- 
ciples on which Mr. Lincoln was elected, and the recent reprimand 
addressed to him and Mr. Seward by the vote of the House of 
Representatives censuring them for their assurances to Mr. 
Drouyn de L'Huys in relation to Mexico; and it needs no 
sagacity to predict that in the event of success in their designs 
against us, the United States would afford but a short respite to 
France from inevitable war ; a war in which France would be in- 
volved not simply in defense of the French policy in Mexico, but 
for the protection of the French soldiers still retained by the 
Emperor "Maximilian under the treaty with him, for the main- 
tenance of his position on the Mexican throne. 

" 'If we now turn to Great Britain, the revelations of the 
venomous hostility toward that power which exists at the North 
are still more striking. The insulting letter of Mr. Webb to the 
BraziHan Cabinet, the rancor of Mr. Seward's response to Lord 
Wharncliffe, and the debates of their Congress on the reciprocity 
treaty with Canada, the arrogant boasting of that portion of the 
press which specially represents the party in power, all point un- 
mistakably to the existence of a desire on the part of the United 
States to engage in a war with England ; a desire repressed solely, 
avowedly, by the necessity of concentrating the whole energies of 
the country for the prosecuting of the war against us. The 
administration papers in the United States, by their party cry of 
' one war at a time,' leave England little room for doubt as to the 



544 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



settled ulterior purpose of that Government to attack England 
as soon as disengaged from the struggle with us. 

" ' What is the present aspect of the war now waged in these 
States? Our seacoast is guarded by numerous fleets against 
which we have been deprived of all means of defense by the 
joint action of France and England. On the land we are pressed 
not only by the superior numbers of our foes, but by armies 
of mercenaries, very many of whom come from British soil, 
and sail to New York or Boston under British flag. While 
engaged in defending our country on terms so unequal the foes 
whom we are resisting profess the intention of resorting to the 
starvation and extermination of our women and children as a 
means of securing conquest over us. In the very beginning of 
the contest they indicated their fell purpose by declaring medicines 
contraband of war, and recently they have not been satisfied with 
burning granaries and dv/ellings and all food for man and beast. 
They have sought to provide against any possible future crops 
by destroying all agricultural implements, and killing all animals 
that they could not drive from the farms, so as to render famine 
certain among the people. This condition of things, taken in 
connection with the attitude of foreign powers, can not but create 
the gravest concern in those to whom the people have entrusted 
the guidance of their affairs in a juncture so momentous. While 
unshaken in the determination never again to unite ourselves 
under a common Government with a people by whom we have 
been so deeply wronged, the inquiry daily becomes more pressing, 
What is the policy and what are the purposes of the Western 
powers of Europe in relation to this contest? Are they deter- 
mined never to recognize the Southern Confederacy until the 
United States assent to such action on their part? Do they 
propose, under any circumstances, to give other and more direct 
aid to the Northern people in attempting to enforce our submission 
to a hateful union? If so, it is but just that we should be 
apprised of their purpose, to the end that we may then deliberately 
consider the terms, if any, upon which we can secure peace 
from the foes to whom the question is thus surrendered ; and who 
have the countenance and encoviragement of all mankind in the 
invasion of our country, the destruction of our homes, the exter- 
mination of our people. If, on the other hand, there be objections 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^^^ 



not made known to us, which have for four years prevented the 
recognition of our independence notwithstanding the demonstra- 
tion of our right to assert, and our ability to maintain it, justice 
equally demands that an opportunity be afforded us for meeting 
and overcoming those objections, if in our power to do so. 

" ' We have given ample evidence that we are not a people to 
be appalled by danger, or to shrink from sacrifice in the attainment 
of our object. That object — ^the sole object for which we would 
ever have consented to commit our all to the hazards of this war — 
is the vindication of our right to self-government and independ- 
ence. 

" 'For that end no sacrifice is too great save that of honor. 
If, then, the purpose of France and Great Britain have been, or 
be now, to exact terms or conditions before conceding the rights 
we claim, a frank exposition of that purpose is due to humanity. 
It is due flow, for it may enable us to save many lives most 
precious to our country by consenting to such terms in advance 
of another year's campaign.' 

" This dispatch will be handed to you by the Hon. Duncan 
F. Kenner, a gentleman whose position in the Confederate Con- 
gress, and whose title to the entire confidence of all departments 
of our Government are too well known to you to need any assur- 
ances from me that you may place implicit confidence in his 
statements. 

" It is proper, however, that I should authorize you, officially, 
to consider any communication he may make verbally on the 
subject embraced in this dispatch as emanating from this Depart- 
ment under the instructions of the President. 
" I have the honor to be, 

" Very respectfully, 
"Your obedient servant, 
" J. P. BENJAMIN, 
" Secretary of State." 

" P. S. — Kenner is delayed. You need not await his arrival 
before acting. 



546 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Dispatch No. 19. 

" London, March 31st, 1865. 
" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I annex hereto a copy of a letter addressed by Earl 
Russell to the three Commissioners jointly, dated * Foreign Office, 
February 13th'; and also a copy of our joint reply dated Paris, 
February 28th. 

" This dispatch will be borne by Commodore Barron, who 
returns home via Texas ; and although subject to the delays of 
this circuitous route, I hope will reach you safely. 

" In a separate packet, also borne by the Commodore, I send 
you the only Parliamentary papers printed at this session relating 
to American affairs, with four copies of a pamphlet by Mr. John 
W. Cowell recently published both here and in Paris — the latter 
as a French translation. The author, an English gentleman, one 
of our earliest and fastest friends, has written much on the side 
of the South, in pamphlet form and for the public journals — all, 
including the pamphlet now sent, published at his own expense. 
I send these copies to you at his request. Please hand one to the 
President. 

" When we assembled recently at Paris on the occasion of the 
letter of Earl Russell to us, Mr, Slidell and I each prepared a 
form of reply, or rather his own had been drawn up when we met 
and mine prepared afterwards ; our intention being to adopt the 
one or the other, or to draft a separate one from the materials 
of the two, as might be considered best. Before this was done, 
Mr. Kenner arrived with your dispatch of 30th December, when 
after consultation it was determined, inasmuch as a communica- 
tion of peculiar kind was to be made to the English Government, 
that it would be more prudent to avoid raising new issues with 
that Government immediately in advance of such a communica- 
tion ; and to content ourselves with the general reply of which you 
have a copy herewith, referring his complaint, for answer, to our 
Government. We refrained, also, for the additional reason, that 
without specific instructions our views or positions in answer to 
his complaints might embarrass the Government should they differ 
from our own. Mr. Slidell and I, however, agreed — the sugges- 
tion being his — that we should send you a draft of the reply we 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



547 



proposed respectively to ourselves, in order to show how the 
matter was regarded by us. 

" I have been much concerned to know that the two cases 
containing the materials for the Seal failed to reach you. One of 
them was bulky and heavy and contained the iron press. They 
were sent to Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Company, of Liverpool, 
on the 5th July last, to be consigned to Major Walker at Bermuda 
by the mail steamer, via Halifax, in which Lieutenant Chapman, 
having charge of the Seal, sailed ; and I particularly requested the 
latter to inquire for them, on his arrival at Bermuda, of Major 
Walker, and take^them, if he could, to the Confederacy. With 
such apparent safeguards it is the more annoying they should 
have miscarried. Now that our Atlantic ports are closed, I do 
not see how the loss can for the present, be replaced. 

' " A few days since, I received a letter from Mr. Abbott, 
counsel in Canada for Lieutenant Young and others claimed for 
extradition by the United States, with a case stated presenting 
those questions of law both public and domestic arising upon the 
evidence at the trial, accompanied by a pamphlet containing the 
evidence, then closed ; and requesting that the case should be sub- 
mitted for the opinion of Sir Hugh Cairns or other eminent coun- 
sel in England. He informed me that the judge, before whom the 
case was pending had been taken ill, and said that the opinion 
might reach him, if promptly given, before the decision of the 
court was rendered. He thought the leaning of the court was 
decidedly with the prisoners, but that the Provincial Government 
was as decidedly adverse ; and anxious, indeed for their rendition ; 
and, if received in time, an opinion from so eminent a quarter in 
England would have a good effect. I therefore lost no time in put- 
ting the case in the hands of solicitors to be presented to Sir Hugh 
together with the letter of Mr. Abbott, with an urgent request that 
it should be acted on in time to be sent to Canada on the first suc- 
ceeding mail. I was gratified to find that my request was acceded 
to. Sir Hugh took into consultation Mr. Reilly, a barrister of 
peculiar eminence in matters of international law, and I was in- 
vited to their consultation on the day following the submission of 
the case. The succeeding day I received their joint opinion in 
writing, which was full, clear, and conclusive, on all the points 
submitted, chiefly that upon the proof, the acts of Lieutenant 



548 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Young and party were unequivocal acts of war committed under 
the authority of an acknowledged belligerent ; and so there was no 
crime in them, and again, if anything had been done by them in 
violation of neutrality, or of the domestic laws of Canada, such 
acts might make them amenable to punishment under those laws ; 
but had no bearing whatever upon what they did in Vermont, and 
beyond the jurisdiction of Canada. This opinion I transmitted by 
the steamer of the 22d, and I hope it will be in time to attain its 
proposed object.* The fees to counsel and solicitors amounting to 
£56. 18. 10, I have paid and charged to the contingent fund. 

" I have, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

The communication from Earl Russell to the three Confeder- 
ate Commissioners, to which Mr. Mason refers in his dispatch, 
reads as follows : 

" Foreign Office, February 13th, 1865. 

" Gentlemen: Some time ago I had the honor to inform you, 
in answer to a statement which you sent me, that Her Majesty 
remained neutral in the deplorable contest now carried on in North 
America, and that Her Majesty intended to persist in that course. 

" It is now my duty to request you to bring to the notice 
of the authorities under whom you act, with a view to their serious 
consideration thereof the just complaint which Her Majesty's 
Government have to make of the conduct of the so-called Con- 
federate Government. The facts upon which these complaints are 
founded tend to show that Her Majesty's neutrality is not 
respected by the agent of that Government, and that undue and 
reprehensible attempts have been made by them to involve Her 
Majesty in a war in which Her Majesty had declared her inten- 
tion not to take part. 

" In the first place I am sorry to observe that the unwarrant- 
able practice of building ships in this country to be used as vessels 



*An extract from a newspaper dated Montreal, Canada, December 13th, 
1864, says: "The case of the St. Alban Raiders was reopened to-day. The 
court decided, in a national question like the one under consideration, the 
Imperial Act was supreme, and that court possessed no jurisdiction in the 
case. He must therefore order the release of the prisoners. After being re- 
leased their plunder was restored to them, so their daring undertaking was 
successful. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. c^g 



of war against a State with whom Her Majesty is at peace still 
continues. Her Majesty's Government had hoped that this 
attempt to make the territorial waters of Great Britain the place 
of preparation for warlike armament against the United States 
might be put an end to by prosecutions and by seizure of the 
vessels built in pursuance of contracts made with Confederate 
agents. But facts which are unhappily too notorious, and cor- 
respondence which has been put into the hands of Her Majesty's 
Government by the Minister of the Government of the United 
States, show that resort is had to evasion and subtlety in order 
to escape the penalties of the law ; that a vessel is bought in one 
place, and that her armament is prepared in another, and that both 
are sent to some distant port beyond Her Majesty's jurisdiction, 
and that thus an armed steamship is fitted out to cruise against 
the commerce of a power in amity with Her Majesty. A crew 
composed partly of British subjects is procured separately; wages 
are paid to them for an unknown service, they are dispatched 
perhaps to the coast of France, and there or elsewhere are engaged 
to serve in a Confederate man-of-war. Now it is very possible 
that by such shifts and stratagems the penalties of the existing 
law of this country, nay, of any law that could be enacted may be 
evaded. But the offense thus offered Her Majesty's authority and 
dignity by the ' de facto ' rulers of the Confederate States, whom 
Her Majesty acknowledges as belligerents and whose agents in 
the United Kingdom enjoy the benefit of our hospitality in quiet 
security, remains the same. It is a proceeding totally unjustifi- 
able, and manifestly offensive to the British Crown. 

" Secondly : The Confederate organs have published (and 
Her Majesty's Government have been placed in possession of it) 
a memorandum of instructions for the cruisers of the so-called 
Confederate States, which would, if adopted, set aside some of 
the most settled principles of International Law, and break down 
rules which Her Majesty's Government have lawfully established 
for the purpose of maintaining Her Majesty's neutrality. 

" It may indeed be said that this memorandum of instructions 
has, though published in a Confederate newspaper, never yet been 
put in force and that it may be considered as a dead letter. But 
this can not be affirmed with regard to the document which forms 
the next ground of complaint. 



-ro LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" Thirdly : The President of the so-called Confederate 
States has put forth a proclamation claiming as a belligerent 
operation in behalf of the Confederate States the act of Bennett G. 
Burley in attempting in 1864 to capture the steamer ' Michigan ' 
with a view to release numerous prisoners detained in captivity in 
Johnson's Island in Lake Erie. Independently of this proclama- 
tion, the facts connected with the attack on other American 
steamers, the 'Philo-Parsoners' and ' Island Queen,' on Lake Erie, 
and the recent raid at St. Albans in the State of Vermont, which 
Lieutenant Young, holding, as he affirms, a commission in the 
Confederate States Army, declares to have been an act of war, 
and therefore not to involve the guilt of robbery and murder, 
show a gross disregard of Her Majesty's character as a neutral 
power, and a desire to involve Her Majesty in hostilities with a 
conterminous power with which Great Britain is at peace. 

" You may, gentlemen, possibly have the means of contesting 
the accuracy of the information on which my foregoing statements 
have been founded ; and I should be glad to find that Her 
Majesty's Government have been misinformed, although I have no 
reason to think such has been the case. 

" If, on the contrary, the information which Her Majesty's 
Government have received with regard to these matters can not be 
gainsaid, I trust that you will feel yourself authorized to promise 
on behalf of the Confederate Government that practices so offen- 
sive and unwarrantable shall cease, and shall be entirely abandoned 
for the future. I shall, therefore, anxiously await your reply, 
after referring to the authorities of the Confederate States. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

" RUSSELL. 

"J. M. Mason, Esq., 

''J. Slidell, Esq., 

" A. D. Mann, Esq." 

To this document the Commissioners replied as follows : 

" Paris, 28th February, 1865. 
" The Right Honorable Earl Russell, 

" Her Majesty's Secretary of State 

"For Foreign Affairs. 
" Your Lordship : The undersigned Rave the honor to 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. erj 

acknowledge the reception of your Lordship's note of the 15th 
instant. 

" They will, in conformity with its closing request, transmit 
a copy of it to their Government; and when they shall be fur- 
nished with instructions on the subject to which it refers, they will 
not fail to communicate them to your Lordship, 

" In doing this, however, they consider it incumbent to record 
their protest against the general tone of your Lordship's com- 
munication, and especially against that portion of it, which 
referring to a proclamation of the President of the Confederate 
States of America, would seem to impugn the good faith of the 
President by ascribing to him, in contradiction to the declarations 
of his proclamation, ' a gross disregard of Her Majesty's char- 
acter as a neutral power, and a desire to involve Her Majesty in 
hostilities with a conterminous power with which Great Britain 
is at peace.' 

" As regards the other statements contained in your Lord- 
ship's letter, the undersigned will, at present, only say that they 
have every reason to be assured that one of them — that relating to 
the continued building by agents of the Confederate States within 
Her Majesty's dominions, of ships-of-war — is entirely without 
foundation ; that as regards the other charges of your Lordship, 
the facts are not, as they confidently believe, correctly stated ; and 
that all your Lordship's complaints of violation of Her Majesty's 
neutrality are susceptible of satisfactory explanation by the Gov- 
ernment of the Confederate States. 

" The undersigned have the honor, etc., 

"J. M. MASON. 
"JOHN SLIDELL. 
" A. DUDLEY MANN. 
" The Right Honorable Earl Russell, Her Majesty's Secretary of 
State for Foreign Affairs." 

Dispatch No. 20. 

"London, March 31st, 1865. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : I came to London for an interview with the Prime 
Minister here, and soon afterwards, by a brief note from Mr. 



552 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Slidell, was informed of his interview with the Emperor; who, 
he said, ' is willing and anxious to act with England, but will not 
move without her.' On the matter we had in reserve being sug- 
gested to the Emperor, he said that ' he had never taken that into 
consideration ; that it had not and could not have, any influence 
on his action ; but that it had probably been differently considered 
by England.' 

" Some few days after the receipt of this letter, viz : on the 
13th March instant, I addressed a note to Lord Palmer ston pre- 
senting my compliments and said that I had recently received at 
Paris important dispatches from the Government of the Confeder- 
ate States, the contents of which the President desired should be 
made known to the Government of Her Majesty ; and I asked the 
honor of an interview for this purpose. In a note from his private 
secretary, the evening of the same day, the latter said he was 
directed by Lord Palmerston, in reply to my note, to appoint the 
interview for the following day at Cambridge House, his residence. 
Immediately after the interview, and while the subject was yet 
fresh in my mind, I returned home and drew up minutes of the 
conversation, to which I had given the closest attention. I have 
the honor to annex hereto a copy of those minutes. 

" The occasion impressed me as being one of great delicacy — 
my extreme apprehension being that if the suggestion were made 
in distinct form, which was the subject of the private note to 
Mr. Kenner, no seal of confidence which I could place on it would 
prevent its reaching other ears than those of the party to whom 
it was addressed ; and it would thus get to the enemy. And if not 
accepted the mischief resulting would be incalculable. This diffi- 
culty I had freely canvassed with Mr. Slidell and Colonel Mann in 
Paris, who fully shared in the apprehension. Thus impressed, I 
hope the manner in which the subject was treated, as disclosed in 
the minutes of conversation appended, will meet with the approval 
of the President and of your Department. 

" From the general tone of the interview I felt it impossible 
that the Minister could misunderstand my allusions, which was 
confirmed by the word he used in reply, as quoted in the minutes. 
In all my conversations here for the last three years, both in 
public and in private circles, whilst satisfied that their sympathies 
were entirely with us as a people struggling for independence; 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. rr? 

and whilst many declared that such sympathy would be even 
stronger and more general were it not for the question of slavery, 
yet, I was equally satisfied that the real impediment to recognition, 
and with both the great political parties, were first, the fear of 
a war with the United States, and secondly, a tacit conviction in 
the English mind that the longer the war lasted in America the 
better for them, because of the consequent exhaustion of both 
parties. Whilst the recent conference with our Commissioners in 
Hampton Roads was depending and rumours thickened that a 
peace would result, it was manifest here that there was great 
apprehension that a war with England or France would follow a 
peace in America, and that a war with either would involve both. 
It was in this light that I sought to impress on Lord Palmerston 
the views expressed in the minutes of conversation as to a possible 
alliance between the two sections under a pressure of necessity on 
our part, and from which we would at once be relieved by an 
European recognition. What I said to him as coming from the 
Emperor was derived from Mr. Slidell's late interview with him, 
and so reported to Lord Palmerston. 

" I have the honor to annex, also, herewith, minutes of a 
recent conversation held with the nobleman named in the paper. 
He is a gentleman really of intelligence, thought, and of practical 
experience in what controls the mind and Government of Eng- 
land ; and for whose opinions I entertain great respect. Whether 
he is right or no as to what might have been done two years ago, 
his views strongly confirm mine given in the minutes of conversa- 
tion just above referred to as to what can not be done now. At 
the time of our recent conversation this gentleman was entirely 
ignorant of the interview I had recently had, or of what passed at 
it ; and, I doubt not, is so still. 

" The present aspect of the war, when the armies appear con- 
centrated in Virginia and the Carolinas, should we have, as we 
ardently hope, decisive successes, may restore that status which, 
in the opinion of the nobleman whose conversation I have re- 
ported, would have enabled us to move successfully for recogni- 
tion in the manner indicated in the dispatch and communications 
to which this is in reply. Should such occur it may be that a more 
favorable opportunity will be afiforded again to approach the Prime 



554 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Minister, and to be more explicit. But, of course, I should do so, 
only, on full consultation with my colleag^ues. 

" I have, etc., 

" J. M. MASON." 

Minutes of a conversation held with Lord Palmerston at 
Cambridge House, March 14th,. 1865 : 

" Last night I asked for the interview by note to Lord P. 
which was appointed by him for 12 M. to-day. 

" I commenced the conversation by stating that a few days 
since, while in Paris, Mr. Slidell and I had received dispatches 
from the Confederate States Government, the contents of which it 
was deemed important by the President should be made known to 
the two Governments of Great Britain and France. As evidence 
of the importance attached to them by the President, they were 
sent by Mr. Duncan F. Kenner, of whose character and position 
I spoke. 

" I then read to Lord Palmerston the latter part of the dis- 
patch, first giving the substance of its introductory clause ; to wit, 
that the Government and people of the Confederate States deeply 
felt what they considered the injustice and hard measure dealt to 
them by the two principal European powers ; first, in regard to 
the blocka4e, which, for the first year or two of the war, at least, 
they considered had been respected by them in violation of the 
stipulations of the Treaty of Paris ; and secondly, in regard to 
the seizure of ships of war supposed to be intended for the Con- 
federacy. That in this respect, whilst the markets of England 
were professedly open to both belligerents for the purchase of 
materiel of war, the South had been prevented from purchasing 
what it most needed, whilst the North obtained all it required. I 
told his Lordship that these matters were adverted to in order to 
show the state of feeling resulting therefrom in the Southern 
States. 

" I here read from the dispatch commencing at the paragraph 
' What is the present aspect of the war now waged in these 
States? ' to its close — omitting, however, the last paragraph which 
begins ' It is proper, however, etc' I then reverted to that part 
of the dispatch which reads ' If there be objections not made 
known to us, etc.,' which prevented our recognition, justice de- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



555 



manded that an opportunity be offered to meet, and if we could, 
to overcome them. And, in this connection I stated to Lord P. 
that I was instructed to say that the Confederate States were so 
fully impressed with the belief that during four years of unex- 
ampled trial, everything on their part had demonstrated their 
independence, not only as achieved, but that they were able and 
determined to maintain it, that the President could not reconcile 
with the existing facts the persistent refusal of Great Britain to 
recognize us, unless there were some latent objection or hindrance 
which Her Majesty's Government had not disclosed, but which 
yet governed its policy. If such be the case, had we not a right to 
know it in a matter so momentous to us? that thus if it stood a 
barrier to recognition we might remove it if in our power to do so ; 
and if not, govern ourselves accordingly. 

" I remarked that the new aspect of the war had been long 
looked to and our present policy adopted as the result of our 
best military counsels. That the abandonment of the sea-coast 
and the concentration of our forces in the interior of the country, 
it was believed, would the sooner satisfy the enemy of the hope- 
lessness of their efforts to subjugate us. But even should this 
policy lead to a war of endurance, our people were prepared for 
it with the nearest approach to unanimity. Such a war, while it 
could not under any fortune restore the Union, might bring the 
Southern States under engagements which otherwise they would 
equally abhor and condemn. I told Lord P. further, as the result 
of my own judgment and observation, and not as emanating from 
the Government, that I considered a peace within the power of the 
South, certainly after another campaign, should it consent to 
become a party to the aggressive policy of the North ; nor could 
I say how far the law of necessity might embroil us, were the 
alternative presented of a continued desolation of our country or 
a return to peace through an alliance committing us to the foreign 
wars of the North. In this connection I assured him that the 
statements of Mr. Seward in his letter to Mr. Adams of the 19th 
February, which were intended to import rather than directly to 
assert that such form of alliance was suggested by the Southern 
Commissioners in the late conference as a basis of peace, I knew 
to be untrue ; and as evidence of this I cited Mr. Benjamin's 
letter to Mr. Kenner, after the latter had left Richmond, wherein 



556 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



he stated that Blair on his second visit, had assured the President 
that Commissioners would be received to negotiate on the follow- 
ing basis ; namely, ' to leave all questions in dispute open and 
undecided ; an armistice to take place ; and a league offensive and 
defensive entered into to drive the French out of Mexico.' 

" This form of proposition came from the North, and when 
the question of peace was discussed at the recent conference, the 
Confederate Commissioners may have adverted to it. I told Lord 
P. I made this correction with no view to propitiate, but as due to 
the South and to the truth. That I was not prepared to say what 
the South might accept, under the pressure of necessity ; but that 
no such policy originated with the Confederate Government ; and 
I here instanced the stipulation on the part of the Colonies, under 
a somewhat like pressure, to guaranty to France her West Indian 
possessions, as the price of the French alliance. 

" In recapitulation I impressively urged on Lord P. that if 
the President was right in his impression that there was some 
latent, undisclosed obstacle on the part of Great Britain to 
recognition, it should be frankly stated, and we might, if in our 
power to do so, consent to remove it. 

" I returned again and again during the conversation to this 
point, and in language so direct that it was impossible to be mis- 
understood, but I made no distinct proposal, in terms, of what was 
held in reserve under the private note borne by Mr. Kenner. 

" Lord Palmerston listened with interest and attention while 
I unfolded fully the purpose of the dispatch and of my interview. 

" In reply he, at once, assured me that the objections enter- 
tained by his Government were those which had been avowed ; and 
that there was nothing (I use his own word) ' underlying ' them. 
He then proceeded to review the various points I had made, 
observing, that it was not unnatural that the South should be sen- 
sitive, as was the North, in regard to the conduct of a neutral 
power. That, in respect to the blockade it might be that in the 
earlier stages of the war. Great Britain might have taken excep- 
tions to it — exceptions which she was not disposed to strain, as, 
in future wars, she was more likely to be a belligerent than a 
neutral. As regarded the purchase of materiel of war in her 
markets, it was considered that her statutes excepted from such 
purchase ships intended for war against a power with which she 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



557 



was at peace ; and that the United States complained it was yet 
carried on against her in evasion of these statutes. As for the 
rest, whatever poHcy had been adopted by Her Majesty's Govern- 
ment was that which was deemed safest and best to preserve a 
strict neutraHty. On the question of recognition the Govern- 
ment had not been satisfied, at any period of the war, that our 
independence was achieved beyond peradventure, and did not feel 
authorized so to declare, when the events of a few weeks might 
prove it a failure. He did not mean to assert that such would 
be the result in weighing probabilities ; but that while the North 
continued the war to restore the Union on the scale it was now 
prosecuted, and with a purpose avowedly unchanged, there could 
be no such assurance in the result, as, in the opinion of his Gov- 
ernment, would warrant their recognizing a final separation. He 
gave this as the sum of the objections against our recognition, 
and added, that as affairs now stood — our seaports given up, the 
comparatively unobstructed march of Sherman, etc., etc., rather 
increased than diminished previous objections. In the matter of a 
possible or probable alliance between the two sections for pur- 
poses offensive and defensive, he thought one could hardly take 
place, considering the North was committed not to admit a 
separation. 

" In reply to these observations I said to Lord Palmerston, 
that he must be aware that the almost uncontested naval suprem- 
acy of the enemy, with its power to direct its entire force against 
any point along our coast, might well satisfy us that our own 
forces could be better employed in the interior, than against the 
enemy attacking by sea. The recent change, therefore, in our 
military policy, was received at the South as encouraging; and 
although it might for a time open the lower country to the ravages 
of the enemy, our people were equal to that as to all other sacri- 
fices. As to the alliance suggested, his Lordship might feel 
assured, that the North would find itself under the sway of an 
imperious necessity, and it was looking to this necessity, that it 
was induced to take the initiative in the recent movement towards 
negotiations for peace. The strain upon its resources, already, 
with the knowledge of our immense reserve force in the slave 
population, were monitions not to be disregarded. As for its 



M. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



committal against a separation, an alliance once determined on, 
the rest would be a matter of detail only. 

" I stated, also, to Lord P. that Mr, Slidell, in a recent inter- 
view with the Emperor, had communicated to him the substance 
of the dispatches I had adverted to, and that the Emperor had 
said in reply, that he was ' willing and anxious to act with Eng- 
land, but would not without her.' That Mr. S. had then asked 
His Majesty if he could not renew his overtures to England, to 
which the latter replied, that they had been so decidedly rejected, 
he could not suppose they would now be listened to with more 
favor. I remarked that such was the language uniformly held by 
the Emperor whenever approached by our Commissioner on the 
subject of recognition; and that thus the South understood that 
England was the obstacle to such action on his part. 

" Lord P. replied that it ought to be understood that France 
was equally free as England to determine her own policy, and 
they might perhaps differ in their views, but it could not be 
alleged that the latter had in any wise endeavored to influence the 
counsels of the former in this particular ; or to bring them into 
harmony with her own. 

" I said this was not alleged, so far as I knew, but that inas- 
much as it appeared that France would not move without England, 
though ' willing and anxious ' to do so, and the latter declined to 
act, such an inference would seem to follow. 

" He replied that this could not be admitted though the facts 
might be as stated. That if France desired to do an act in con- 
cert with England, in which the latter was not disposed to unite, 
her failure to do the act singly was her own affair, and for which 
England could not be held responsible. 

" The subject thus discussed, his Lordship inquired about the 
present conditions and prospects of the South, and said he pre- 
sumed that even with our seaports in possession of the enemy, 
blockade-runners would continue to find their way in and out by 
the numerous inlets of our extensive coasts. In the course of our 
conversation, expressions fell from him implying that in such a 
struggle as the present, his personal sympathies could be only 
with a people who sought alone the right of self-government. 

" Our conversation lasted for more than an hour, and on 
rising to take leave, I expressed disappointment, or said rather, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^jg 



that the President would be disappointed to learn that he was 
mistaken in the impression that there was some operating influence 
that deterred Her Majesty's Government from recognizing us, 
which had not been made known to him. As matters now stood, 
there would be no alternative but to continue the war until terms 
could be made with the enemy (probably of the character I had 
intimated) and from which we had hoped to have been relieved by 
European recognition. 

" To this he made no further reply than that he could not 
see how mere recognition, without some intervention, could be of 
value to us ; on the contrary, he had always supposed such action 
would incite the North to still greater efforts. 

" I observed that upon recognition the North would be bound 
to admit that on the impartial arbitration of the great powers of 
Europe it was waging war against an independent State. Their 
pretext for suppressing a rebellion, which carried with it much 
moral force, would thus be removed. But, at any rate, it was 
fair to presume that the parties interested could best appreciate 
the value and the effect of such a decision, and it was certainly 
clear, that recognition was what the South most earnestly sought, 
and the North most strongly deprecated. 

" His Lordship here remarked that although there had been 
no formal recognition of the South in all the attributes of a politi- 
cal power, its acknowledgment as a belligerent was a disclaimer 
of anything like rebellion. 

"Lord Palmerston's manner throughout the interview was 
uniformly conciliatory and kind, and when I apologized for the 
time I had occupied, he begged me to be assured that he would 
always be glad to see me, whenever I had anything which I 
desired to communicate to him. 

" It will be seen that I made no distinct suggestion of what 
the President considered might be the latent difficulty about recog- 
nition in the mind of the British Ministry, construing the private 
instructions in the letter to Mr. Kenner to require that whilst inti- 
mations should be given which should necessarily be suggestive to 
the Prime Minister, it was for every reason important that an 
open proposition from us should be avoided, and whilst there was 
no committal on my part, I do not doubt that Lord P. understood 
to what obstacle allusion was made; and I am equally satisfied 



00 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



that the most ample concessions on our part in the matter referred 
to, would have produced no change in the course determined on 
by the British Government in regard to recognition." 

Enclosed in the same dispatch were the minutes of a con- 
versation held with the Earl of Donoughmore : 

"Sunday, 26th March, 1865. 

" I called at his residence on the evening of the above date, 
as occasionally in the habit of doing. I have known this gentleman 
more intimately perhaps, than any other of his rank in England, 
and have always found him a fast and consistent friend of our 
cause. 

" Our conversation opened by an inquiry from him as to the 
prospects of the war, he expressing great concern at the apparent 
weakness of the South, as evinced by Sherman's unimpeded 
march through Georgia, and into the Carolinas, and its depressing 
effect upon public opinion in England, and remarked that but for 
slavery we should have been recognized two years ago. I told 
him that in my former intercourse with the Government here, 
as well as among our friends in and out of it ; whilst fully aware 
that slavery was deplored among us, I had never heard it sug- 
gested as a barrier to recognition. 

" He replied that in his opinion it had always been in the way, 
and after Lee's successes on the Rappahannock, and march into 
Pennsylvania, when he threatened Harrisburg, and his army was 
at the very gates of Washington, he thought that but for slavery 
we should then have been acknowledged. 

" I told him that what he said interested me greatly, as giv- 
ing new impressions, and asked him, suppose I should now go to 
Lord Palmerston and make a proposition, to wit, that in the 
event of present recognition measures would be taken satisfactory 
to the British Government for the abolition of slavery — not 
suddenly and at once, but so as to insure abolition in a fair and 
reasonable time — would his Government then recognize us? 

" He replied that the time had gone by, now especially that 
our fortunes seemed more adverse than ever. 

" Lord D., as you are aware, was a member of the late Derby 
Administration and will doubtless be so again, should his party 
come into power. Looking to this contingency, I inquired further, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



561 



should such an event happen and the same proposition be made 
then, what would be the answer? 

" He replied, ' We should be obliged^ as affairs now stand, to 
make the same.' He then went on to declare that whilst he always 
strongly participated in the feeling against slavery, he must admit 
that his opinions, so far as regarded its status in the South, had 
been much modified by information derived through events of 
the war. 

" This gentleman is a thorough Englishman of his class, and 
an able and enlightened man, of liberal views." 

The date of the foregoing dispatch shows that it was written 
only two days before the evacuation of Richmond, therefore, it 
could not have reached its destination. It is, however, among 
the official records of the Mission, and is here copied from the 
" Dispatch Book," in which all dispatches were entered by Mr. 
Macfarland, Secretary of Legation, before they were sent to the 
Department. It affords authentic information regarding the 
subject of which it treats, and it is interesting as evidence that Mr. 
Mason was wholly unprepared for the crushing sorrow so soon 
to come upon him in the overthrow of his Government. The 
following letters express his confident expectations of the contin- 
uance of the Confederacy ; and as late as May ist another dispatch 
was written in entire ignorance of the condition of his beloved 
South. On April 29th, he wrote thus to Colonel Mann : " I have 
your two last of the 25th and 27th, and thank you with all my 
heart for the latter, in which you declare yourself more ' Hopeful.' 
I assure you, in the midst of our late disasters, I have never been 
discouraged, far less despondent. I annex an extract from a late 
note to Slidell, to show you my temper. 

" I have certainly been depressed and disturbed at the mani- 
festation of weakness which compelled Lee, after the evacuation 
of Richmond, to surrender his army, but I have never doubted, 
and do not now doubt that the war will go on to final success. I 
think I am too old and experienced in life to be deluded by mere 
idle hope. I confide ever in the spirit of our people ; they have 
before them but success or bondage a thousand-fold worse than 
Egyptian — now made more certain than ever by the accession 
of Johnson— and against such, they must and will struggle 



S62 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



on to the death. What aspects the war may assume, into what 
reduced armies or small bands our forces may fall. I can not fore- 
tell — but they will keep the field. It may become a war of 
endurance, and in such a contest we shall outlast them. Such 
I honestly assure you is my feeling, and not assumed for the 
occasion, and the proclamation of the President comes opportunely 
to confirm it. I have a strong disposition to make a proper occa- 
sion to write a letter to some friend, an M. P. here, to express 
these views, by way of hanging out our flag as a rallying point to 
the despondent. 

" The assassination of Lincoln is an event, and I think will 
be of great consequence to us, as the commencement of a tornado 
at the North. I fear to theorize, yet, had there been but one 
assassin, it might have been the act of a crazed imagination, but 
there were two, and madmen don't conspire, and the time and 
circumstances lead me strongly to believe it was a conspiracy to 
accelerate the succession, and to frustrate the anticipated proffer 

of terms to the South, and that it will bear its fruits in the North. 

***** 

" Ever most truly yours, 

" J. M. MASON." 

Next, according to date, comes the last official dispatch. 

" London, May ist, 1865. 

" Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. 

" Sir : Captain Maury, who sails to-morrow in the steamer 
for Havana, will bear this dispatch, and I have the honor to 
transmit to you herewith duplicates of my Nos. 19 and 20, with the 
documents thereto pertaining. The originals of all these were 
sent by Commodore Barron, who left here a month ago by the 
same route. As Captain Maury expects to go via Texas (the only 
route now open), it will be some months before he can reach 
the seat of Government, wherever that may be established. I shall 
hope before that to be in communication with the Government; 
and thus what I might write now, in regard to late events, would 
be of little interest. I shall only say, therefore, that the evacua- 
tion of Richmond and surrender of Lee has produced the con- 
fident belief here and throughout Europe generally, that further 
resistance is hopeless and that the war is at an end — to be fol- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^^j 

lowed, on our part, by passive submission to our fate. I need not 
say that I entertain no such impression, and endeavor as far as I 
can to disabuse the public mind. The proclamation of the Presi- 
dent at Danville, of which, as yet, we have the substance only, has 
not had the effect to reassure. It is the only report we have had 
from the Government since the above calamitous events. 

" The assassination of Lincoln and attempt on the life of 
Seward, as was to be expected, produced a great shock to all 
classes of society here, and public meetings have been held in Lon- 
don and other parts of the Kingdom, expressing indignation and 
abhorrence at the deed — without, however, tingeing their resolu- 
tions with any partisan hue. 

" Together with the usual telegraphic accounts, came a dis- 
patch from Mr. Stanton to Mr. Adams, giving an official version 
of the event. I felt it incumbent on me, at once, to reply to his 
charge of its being a ' rebel ' conspiracy, intended to aid their 
cause. I have the honor to enclose printed copies of both papers. 
My letter was published in all the London journals. 

" In the uncertainty of the future, or of what may be the views 
of the Government relative to the continuance of Commissioners 
or other agencies abroad, I can only remain where I am, and await 
its orders ; and however desirous to be at home to contribute to 
our great cause whatever it might be in my power to do there, or 
to give aid and protection to my (I fear) distressed family, I shall 
act accordingly. 

" I have the honor to be, etc., 

"J. M. MASON." 

The papers referred to as inclosed, are here copied from clip- 
pings from English newspapers, preserved by Mr. Mason as 
" material for history." 

Official Report. 

" The following official telegram from Mr. Secretary Stanton 
has been furnished to us by the United States Legation in London : 

" * (Via Greencastle^ per Nova Scotia.) 

" ' Washington, April 15th, 1865. 
" ' Sir: It has become my distressing duty to announce to 
you that last night His Excellency, Abraham Lincoln, President of 



5^4 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



the United States, was assassinated, about the hour of half past 
ten o'clock, in his private box at Ford's Theatre, in the city. The 
President, about eight o'clock, accompanied Mrs. Lincoln to the 
theatre. Another lady and gentleman were with them in the box. 
About half past ten, during a pause in the performance, the assas- 
sin entered the box, the door of which was unguarded, hastily 
approached the President from behind, and discharged a pistol at 
his head. The bullet entered the back of his head, and penetrated 
nearly through. The assassin then leaped from the box upon the 
stage, brandishing a large knife, and exclaiming, 'Sic semper 
tyrannis' and escaped in the rear of the theatre. Immediately 
upon the discharge the President fell to the floor insensible, and 
continued in that state until twenty minutes past seven o'clock this 
morning, when he breathed his last. About the same time the 
murder was being committed in the theatre, another assassin pre- 
sented himself at the door of Mr. Seward's residence, gained ad- 
mission by representing he had a prescription from Mr. Seward's 
physician, which he was directed to see administered, and hurried 
up to the third story chamber, where Mr. Seward was lying. 
He here discovered Mr. Frederick Seward, struck him over the 
head, inflicting several wounds, and fracturing the skull in two 
places, inflicting, it is feared, mortal wounds. He then rushed 
into the room where Mr. Seward was in bed, attended by a young 
daughter and a male nurse. The male attendant was stabbed 
through the lungs, and it is believed will die. The assassin then 
struck Mr. Seward with a knife or dagger, twice in the throat and 
twice in the face, inflicting terrible wounds. By this time Major 
Seward, eldest son of the Secretary, and another attendant reached 
the room and rushed to the rescue of the Secretary ; they were also 
wounded in the conflict, and the assassin escaped. No artery or 
important blood vessel was severed by any of the wounds inflicted 
upon him, but he was for a long time insensible from the loss of 
blood. Some hope of his possible recovery is entertained. Im- 
mediately upon the death of the President notice was given to 
Vice-President Johnson, who happened to be in the city, and upon 
whom the oflice of President now devolves. He will take the 
office and assume the functions of President to-day. The murderer 
of the President has been discovered, and evidence obtained that 
these horrible crimes were committed in execution of a conspiracy 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^^5 

deliberately planned and set on foot by rebels under the pretence 
of avenging the South and aiding the rebel cause ; but it is hoped 
that the immediate perpetrators will be caught. The feeling occa- 
sioned by these atrocious crimes is so great, sudden, and over- 
whelming, that I can not at present do more than communicate 
them to you. At the earliest moment yesterday the President 
called a Cabinet meeting, at which General Grant was present. 
He was more cheerful and hagpy than I had ever seen him, re- 
joiced at the near prospect of firm and durable peace at home and 
abroad, manifested in marked degree the kindness and humanity 
of his disposition, and the tender and forgiving spirit that so emi- 
nently distinguished him. Public notice had been given that he 
and General Grant would be present at the theatre, and the oppor- 
tunity of adding the Lieutenant-General to the number of victims 
to be murdered was no doubt seized for the fitting occasion of 
executing the plans that appear to have been in preparation for 
some weeks, but General Grant was compelled to be absent, and 
thus escaped the designs upon him. It is needless for me to say 
anything in regard of the influence which this atrocious murder 
of the President may exercise upon the affairs of this country; 
but I will only add that, horrible as are the atrocities that have 
been resorted to by the enemies of the country, they are not likely 
in any degree to impair the public spirit or postpone the complete 
final overthrow of the rebellion. In profound grief for the events 
which it has become my duty to communicate to you, I have the 
honor to be, 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"EDWIN M. STANTON." 

Mr. Mason's Letter. 

The following is the text of the Hon. James M. Mason's 
letter repudiating the charge of " Rebel Conspiracy " : 

" To the Editor of the London Index. 

" Sir : Time will develop the mystery as yet attending the 
assassination of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United 
States, and the attempted assassination of Mr. Seward, his Sec- 
retary of State. I desire only to repel at once the calumnious 
assertion of Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, in his letter 



566 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



to Mr. Adams, printed in the London journals of this morning, 
that these acts were ' planned and set on foot by rebels, under 
pretence of avenging the South, and aiding the rebel cause,' and 
of which he says there is ' evidence obtained.' 

" Mr. Stanton's letter is dated on the 15th of April, and states 
that Mr. Lincoln was assassinated in the theatre at half past ten 
o'clock the previous night, and died at twenty minutes past seven 
on the morning of the day that he* wrote. I adduce this to show 
how unlikely it is, in the hurried excitement, and the necessary 
occupations attending such events, that any but the wildest 
theories would prevail in regard to the cause of the event, or the 
object of the perpetrators. Mr. Stanton adopts that which he 
deemed would be most useful before the public of his country. 
Should the ' evidence ' to which he refers to support his calumny 
ever see the light, it will be scanned with the experience derived in 
regard to other evidence, unscrupulously fabricated in the same 
quarter, during the present war, for base political effect. It is the 
crudest conception, too, that the murder of Abraham Lincoln was 
planned and executed for the purpose of ' aiding the rebel cause' ; 
but I can well understand that it may have material influence in 
aiding the cause of that overpowering party in the United States 
of which Mr. Stanton is the type, and Andrew Johnson, who suc- 
ceeds as President, with Butler, of the notorious prefix, are the 
exponents and leaders — a party in whose path the late President 
and his Secretary were acknowledged obstacles in their projected 
schemes of plunder and rapine to follow their dominion over the 
Southern States. 

" For the rest, I learn from a well-informed source in Lon- 
don that ' Wilkes Booth,' who is accused of the deed, is a son of 
the celebrated English actor of that name, was of his father's pro- 
fession, which he pursued principally in the Northern States, and 
was generally understood as inheriting those traits significant of 
his father's name, Junius Brutus Booth, by whom he was najned 
John Wilkes, after the great English Radical — an origin and 
mental training little likely to engender the slightest sympathy 
with the great cause of the conservative South. As to the crime 
which has been committed, none will view it with more abhorrence 
than the people of the South ; but they will know, as will equally 
all well-balanced minds, that it is the necessary offspring of those 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



567 



scenes of bloodshed and murder in every form of unbridled license 
which have signalized the invasion of the South by the Northern 
armies, unrebuked certainly, and therefore instigated by their 
leaders, and those over them. 

" Pardon the length of this note ; I desired only instantly to 
repel the atrocious calumnies in the letter of Mr. Stanton. 
" Very respectfully yours, 

"J. M. MASON. 
" No. 24 Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square, London, 
" April 2rth, 1865." 

An extract from the official records of the Federal Govern- 
ment, as given in " The War of the Rebellion," may be of interest 
to the reader. 

On page 665 of Vol. XLIX, Part II., Series I., it is recorded, 
in a communication from Brevet Major-General J. H. Wilson 
addressed to Brevet Major-General Upton, at Augusta, Ga., that 
" The President of the United States has issued a proclamation 
announcing that the Bureau of Military Justice has reported, upon 
indubitable evidence, that Jeff. Davis, Clement C. Clay, Jacob 
Thompson, George N. Sanders, Beverley Tucker, and W. C. 
Cleary incited and concerted the assassination of Mr. Lincoln and 
the attempted assassination of Mr. Seward. He therefore offers 
for the arrest of Davis, Clay, and Thompson $100,000 each ; for 
Sanders and Tucker, $25,000 each, and for Cleary, $10,000. Pub- 
lish this in hand-bills ; circulate everywhere, and urge the greatest 
possible activity in the pursuit." 



568 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Anxiety and Trouble About Richmond — " No Fear or Doubt as to Result " 
— Passage Engaged to Canada — Departure'Delayed by Political Considera- 
tions — " What is to be the Future of the South?" — Visit to Sir Frederick 
Pollock — Contributions to Baltimore Bazaar — President Johnson's Policy — 
Probable Emigration of Young Men from the South — War Struck the 
Blow Which Must Eventually Sever North and South — Arrival in Mon- 
treal—Visits from Mr. Davis and Others — Return to Virginia — Letter from 
Mr. Hunter Speaks of Condition of South — Letters from Hunter and 
Davis Relate Hampton Roads Conference — Lincoln's Account of It — 
Failure of Mr. Mason's Health — His Death. 

The record of Mr. Mason's public life ends with the last 
chapter. The story of his remaining years is best told by extracts 
from his correspondence. The first letter given belongs to an 
earlier date but it was reserved for this place rather than break 
the connection by introducing it where it was not relevant to the 
subject there treated of. Its expressions of unshaken confidence 
in the final triumph of the South gives to it peculiar interest. 

" 24 Upper Seymour Street, 

" PoRTMAN Square, 
" London, March 25th, 1865. 

"My Very Dear Wife: I begin this letter a week in advance 
of the time when Captain Barron, of the Navy, expects to sail, 
that it may be ready and I can add to it in the meantime. I fear 
it will be some months before it may reach you, as he will have to 
go via Mexico and Texas, but since all our ports are in the hands 
of the enemy, we must avail ourselves of such chances as may 
offer. 

" Your last and most welcome letter was of the i8th of Jan- 
uary, and reached me about a month ago ; a most charming and 
encouraging one it was, considering the constant, and, I fear, har- 
assing cares with which you are beset, during this cruel and 
fiendish war. Indeed, although I never fear or doubt the result, 
yet with the picture always before me, of what you and our dear 
girls are called to endure, I am sometimes sorely tried in my exile. 
Were I with you, I could at least, share 3^our privations and to 
that extent seem to diminish them, but it is vain to repine. * * * 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. j^p 

" In regard to events at home, we are kept here always in the 
most trying suspense. I get regularly the New York papers, and 
they quote occasional paragraphs from the Richmond papers, and 
thus, to some extent, we can neutralize the Yankee accounts (but 
these last always come first by telegraph) of items prepared at 
New York for the English press, and are manipulated accordingly, 
and thus we are kept in anxiety and doubt from week to week. 
Our latest accounts are to the nth of March, now fourteen days 
since, and we are all on the eve of expectation for the result of 
Sherman's movements in South Carolina, as they, besides other 
important results, may involve the fate of Richmond, but how idle 
to indulge in these speculations in a letter which is not to reach 
you for months, and long after the results and their consequences 
are covered over and hidden in the great march of events. 

"March 28th. — In advance of the time when it may be neces- 
sary to call in the aid of an amanuensis to finish this, I want to 
say a word about your finances, in case, in the changes of the war, 
it should become necessary to leave Richmond, an event I don't 
contemplate, but which still may happen. As long as you are in 
Richmond you have a safe resource in the kindness of our friend 
Macfarland, and out of it, I am sure he will direct you to safe 
hands. I have made ample provision here for your drafts, and 
you may, therefore, safely rely, and assure others that they will 
be met. Let them be made on me, payable at the house of John 
K. Gilliat and Company, 4 Crosby Square, London. 

" At this distance from the scene apprehensions cluster 
thickly around me, and am constantly harassed at what you and 
the dear girls may have to endure, should the fortunes of war 
again compel you to seek a new home, but as far as means are 
concerned, always rely that you can draw on me as heretofore for 
supplies. * * * 

" I see by the New York papers that Mrs. Hugh Lee, with 
the young ladies of her family, and Mrs. Sherrard, with hers, 
have been expelled from Winchester by that brute, Sheridan, thus 
adding more material to the suffering and, I fear, often destitute, 
refugees driven from home. Should you meet them, pray say 
for me that my heart and sympathies have been with them in all 
their trials, and express my admiration at the noble and unflinch- 
ing manner in which they have been borne. 



570 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" March 31st, — You may well conceive, my dear wife, the 
anxiety and trouble I am in just now about you all at Richmond. 
We have been alarmed at the President's late declaration, that the 
city is more seriously threatened than ever before; at the un- 
obstructed raid by Sheridan from Winchester through Staunton, 
to the James River, and the destruction he has made on the rail- 
roads and canal leading to Richmond ; and the march of Sher- 
man's army through the Carolinas. Still, I have unabated confi- 
dence in those who hold the helm, and above all, in our gallant 
armies, and I try to reassure myself, should you find it necessary 
to leave Richmond, that you are surrounded by kind friends and 
able advisers, as to the best point to be reached. Heaven preserve 
and protect you and your large charge in the severe trials to which 
you are subjected. I do not know how I am to get letters now, 
but you must ask the authorities at Richmond to keep you in- 
formed of opportunities. My best and constant love to Kate and 
her household, to the boys and my dear daughters, and to Marie, 
to Maria and Nannie. Always, my very dear wife, 
" Most affectionately yours, 

"J. M. M." 

"Leamington^ England, June 7th, 1865. 

"My Dear Wife : I have just had the inexpressible pleasure of 
hearing, through a letter from Teko, that you, with our dear girls, 
were then in Baltimore, en route for St. Catherine's, Canada. I 
hope you were enabled to pursue your journey unmolested, and I 
take the chance by the first Quebec steamer to write to you. ^ I 
earnestly trust that you managed to get through safely, and that 
this letter will find you safe and rested and quiet under the flag 
of Old England, with ' nobody to come near you or make you 
afraid.' 

" I can not tell you how much I am relieved by the intelli- 
gence that you and our dear girls are at last beyond the domain of 
the brutal Yankees who have made our land a desert. Now I 
can write freely and so can you and they, and I beg you will do 
so ; tell the girls that everything they can toil me of what interested 
them in the fearful drama will interest me and deeply. I write 
this to take the chance of its reaching you; when you are fixed, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^yj 



give me your exact address, and then my letters will g^o to you 
regularly. * * * 

" I have been in this quiet inland town for the last two or 
three weeks, to get away from the crowd and distraction of Lon- 
don, and, too, for economy. I may change my quarters, but the 
Gilliats will always have my address. 

" I can not write of my views, or of our affairs, domestic or 
political, until I have certainty that my letters will reach you out 
of the United States — then I shall be free to talk. 

" Tell the dear girls and the grandchildren that I send my best 
love and welcome to the English flag. 

" Most affectionately, yours, 

" J. M. MASON." 

" Leamington, England, June 14th, 1865. 

"My Dear Wife : I have heard nothing from you since Teko's 
letter of the 226. of May, speaking of your arrival and detention 
for a day in Baltimore. The Quebec steamer arrived at Liverpool 
yesterday, and I am eagerly in hope of receiving, during the day, 
the long desired letter to assure me of the safety of yourself and 
our dear girls, where you can once more write and speak freely. 
and enjoy again some of the comforts of life. 

" I told you in my last, of my purpose, under a sense of duty, 
of remaining in England until I heard definitely of what might be 
done by Texas. If she surrenders, I will join you at once ; if not, 
I feel it due to remain until I see whether that State looks to my 
services in Europe — in such case I shall hope to make arrange- 
ments for you to join me here. These doubts must, I think, be 
cleared up in a very short time. * * * 

" I am resident in a beautiful English town, some hundred 
miles from London, and, so far, there are several agreeable Con- 
federate families here, amongst them Mrs. Watkins Leigh, of 
Richmond, and two daughters. Her son. Chapman Leigh, arrived 
a few days since ; as he left Richmond after you did, was in the 
army, and was at Danville after the surrender, he has given me 
much interesting but sad detail. Tell me of all arrangements you 
have made or propose to make for temporary residence, and send 
me your address for my letters, 

" Yours most affectionately, 

" J. M. MASON." 



J72 I^^FE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

" London, August 9th, 1865. 

" I have just been made happy, my dear wife, by the receipt 
of yours of the 27th July, with enclosures from the girls, and now, 
I think I shall add to your and their happiness when I tell you 
that my passage is engaged in the ' Peruvian,' to leave for Quebec 
on the 24 instant, which I trust will put me once more with you 
and our dear daughters at an early day in September. 

" Tell the girls that we will then discuss the details of our 
future settlement, in which plans I shall be most happy to include 
the young gentlemen who are now with you. General Brecken- 
ridge and Colonel Helm, our late Consul at Havana, go with me 
to Canada. * * * 

" With constant love to all, 

" Yours, my dear wife, ever, 

"J. M. M." 

Another letter of August i6th said: "In my letter of last 
week I told you that I should sail, in company with General Breck- 
enridge, on the 24th, for Canada. Since then we have heard of 
the arrival of Mr. Benjamin at Havana, and that he will be here 
on the steamer from that place to arrive on the 28th. This may 
possibly cause us to delay our departure for a week. The Gen- 
eral is now in Paris, to return the day after to-morrow ; until I 
see him, I can not decide, but it seems to me that it would not be 
well to leave Europe without a conference with Mr. Benjamin. 
* * * I have just returned from a visit of a few days to 
Bedgebury Park, taking leave of my most excellent friends, the 
Hopes, and with sincere regret at parting." 

A note, written a day later, on August 1 7th, said : 

" Our departure is delayed for a week. We, that is. Gen- 
eral Breckenridge and I, will sail on the ' Hibernian,' on the 31st 
instant, which will bring me, I hope, to you by the loth or 12th 
of September." 

Still later, on August 23d, he writes : " I am now to make 
a suggestion which I fear will try your equanimity. After I had 
committed myself to leave Europe by taking passage for Canada, 
it brought many remonstrances from friends here, both Confed- 
erate and English, resting chiefly on political considerations not 
easily developed in a letter, and which set me to thinking maturely 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



573 



on the step. I had no object in going to Canada but to join you 
and our dear circle there. Why not bring you all here? I had 
not suggested this before from a general apprehension that you 
and the girls might be disinclined to the sea voyage, which was a 
matter of no moment to me ; and then on the score of economy, 
which we are now so much bound to regard, I am satisfied that 
in a good country town in England there would be little if any 
difference, and on the score of comfort and peace, we shall be far 
better off than when near the Yankee frontier. 

" As to the sea voyage, I am told by nautical men here that 
the month of October is amongst the most tranquil months, but 
whether or no, the steamers are so large and under such expe- 
rienced command that whatever your anticipations, I am sure you 
would have a pleasant voyage and be at least, not more than ten 
days at sea. And on learning on what ship you sail, I should meet 
you on board and before you land. I really see no difficulty in 
all this, and hope that you will not. * * * j ^j^ earnestly 
im.pressed with the belief that this is the best thing to be done for 
all of us, and I hope you will allow no really minor obstacles to 
deter you ; but at last, if you really find it impracticable, then I 
must join you, and it will have resulted only to delay for a short 
time our meeting." 

" London, September 23d, 1865. 
" My Very Dear Daughter : I can well understand the great 
disappointment so strongly expressed in your letter of the 7th, 
on the receipt of mine informing you that I could not join you, as 
I had given you full reason to expect, but I had earnestly hoped it 
would have been mitigated by your finding yourselves in a posi- 
tion to join me. I was certainly aware that there would be diffi- 
culties in family arrangements, but I thought they might be over- 
come ; but those which you have stated as personal to your excel- 
lent mother, are conclusive with me — certainly while they remain 
— could I get to you, perhaps I could remove them, but until I do, 
I acquiesce cheerfully in her decision. General Preston, who is 
here, will sail in the packet of next week for Quebec, and after re- 
ceiving your letter, I had almost determined to overrule as well my 
own judgment, as that of others, and go with him, when this 
morning he, with Mr. Benjamin (also now here), and General 



_^74 ^I^^ ^^ JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

McCrea, financial agent of the Confederacy, came to see me to 
remonstrate against it. I can not put on paper the reasons they 
suggested. Those that referred to a possible risk of my personal 
safety, were I to appear at this time in Canada, I should overrule ; 
but there were others of a political character altogether, which I do 
not feel at liberty to disregard. It may be yet that I may get ofif in 
October, but after my late signal failure, I am afraid to promise 
more. In meantime, it being settled that you can not come here, 
I hope your mother will avail herself of the remaining mild 
weather to establish her household comfortably for the winter. 
Even should I not get to you before the steamers cease running 
to Quebec, I may afterwards make my way from Halifax, for 
I confess that everything abroad has become to me * stale, flat, 
and unprofitable.' " 

On October 24th he writes to his daughters: 

" Most earnestly indeed do I wish that I could bring to an 
end this long separation — I think fully with you that not only 
your excellent mother and all of you, but that / too, considering 
all that you have undergone in the last four years, ' deserve ' that 
we should be united, and to remain united once more. I can only 
say, my dear girls, that as soon as I can leave Europe with justice 
to affairs in my charge here, it shall be done. When I can explain 
them to you, you will agree that I am right." 

His next letter, a few days later, says : " In regard to my 
own movements, I can not yet speak more definitely than before — 
the same reasons then detaining me remaining. If the Canada 
line continues to run during November, I may effect it. You may 
well imagine, besides my earnest desire to be once more united to 
you all, in the condition of things around me here, Europe pre- 
sents but little interest." * * * 

" I can't say that I expect it, but yet it may be possible, that 
things may be so arranged that we may be enabled to go back 
where we came from (I can not say to the country we left) in 
the course of next year. Mr. President Johnson, little as was 
expected of him, has certainly shown, in his policy so far. a fixed 
purpose to disappoint that party who revelled in the ruin of 
the South — from his late speech to the delegation from South 
Carolina, which seems to have been well considered, is shown a 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



575 



full determination to win the confidence of our people, and under 
no circumstances to permit any executions for alleged treason, and 
in aid of all which, came his prompt release, on parole, of certain 
of the chief offenders. In the policy thus indicated, he will be 
sustained certainly by those who rejoice in the appellation of the 
* Democratic party ' — and I should think with equal earnestness, 
by the entire responsible and considerate mind at the North, of 
every party — they must be aware that their country can be saved 
from ruin, and disgrace in their finances, only by getting back the 
South once more as a productive country. All this, however, can 
be little other than speculation, until we see what may be the 
temper and policy of the Congress about to meet." 

" November 23d. — As to the future, one may speculate, but 
can speculate only. So far as I can see now. Canada may be our 
residence for some time to come — we can only make the best of 
it. I suppose it must be determined by the action at Washington 
during this winter what is to be the future of our unhappy South, 
and of those who are now its exiles ; looking forward, I confess 
my forebodings are gloomy. At present, with all the apparent 
disposition of Mr. President Johnson to invigorate and restore it, 
it yet lies prostrate and powerless under a despot's foot. It can 
never be what it was, and unless, in a hope that I could render 
some possible service to my countrymen who are compelled to 
remain there, I can have no wish to return. I am satisfied I could 
render no service now unless I were to aid in adjusting the yoke 
that is upon them, an office for which I have no inclination. It 
is idle thus to moralize, yet with me, as I am sure with you, the 
past is ever present, and will engross all my thoughts." 

The following article was written about this time and during 
one of Mr, Mason's visits to Shepperton, the residence of his 
friend, Mr. Lindsay. It is introduced in this connection as further 
illustrative of his (Mr. Mason's) opinions and feelings: 

" Shepperton Manor House, 

" Middlesex, England, 1865. 

^ "What is to be the Future of the South ? 

" At so early a day after its conquest, this must, to a great 
extent, be little more than a subject of speculation, yet there are 
certain positions which it is thought may be safely assumed. 



57(> 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" It is certain, as the result of the war, the whole South is now 
prostrate and powerless — that war was for independence. An 
independence believed to be from political considerations indis- 
pensable to the safety and welfare of the people, its value may be 
estimated by the price paid in the attempt to obtain it. Indepen- 
dence is deferred, the same political causes which led to the war 
must continue until the end is attained. The great blow has been 
struck, the people North and South, as communities, are separated 
forever. At present, and since the war ended, the South has re- 
mained unresisting under the dominion of the North, its proud and 
spirited people have been made to feel the bitterness of subjuga- 
tion, and the inquiry forced upon us is, what course is left to them? 
Shall they flee to a foreign land, or remain and await events? 
Pride might adopt the former, but reason and manhood require 
the latter. When the prize is ultimately gained, the sufferings, 
privations, and even humiliations through which it was attained 
will only the more ennoble it. 

" But if the South has thus suffered in its wealth and re- 
sources, the North has sustained even a greater loss in its form 
of government. It is no longer a Republic. It is no longer a 
government of limited power. It is no longer a federation of 
States. It is a government centralized and consolidated, and its 
power is measured only by the will of the Congress and the Presi- 
dent, as they are adapted from time to time to the shifting expe- 
dients of ignorance or fraud, and such must continue its character 
until, by some violent convulsion, all power is centered in a junto 
or seized by a usurper. 

" The form of government, when the war was begun, was 
that of a Federated Republic, the confederates being each a 
separate and equal sovereign State. State equality and State 
sovereignty were overthrown by the war, and the North has 
accepted that as one of its fortunate results. The idea that the 
Southern States can or should return to the Union in the condition 
that they left it is idle and impossible. Were this proposition 
made by the North, and made with honorable and fair intent, it 
would be fatuous in the South to accept it. Their experience 
under the late Union would prove that they would then only 
become one people governed by another people. 

" What remains to them ? They can only for the present 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



577 



wait events, and one of two things must happen, either the South 
will yet attain independence or the North become a consolidated 
empire with the South absorbed. The people of the South will 
be in fair competition with the people of the North for the domin- 
ion." 

" London, January i8th, 1866. 

" My Dear Wife : I have nothing to tell you of myself except 
that time drags on at a slow and heavy pace. Fortunately, my 
health continues robust, though the winter climate of England 
is anything but agreeable. I think I may safely say that six days 
in seven present the same unvarying round of clouds, rain, and 
fog, yet I manage to keep up my usual habit of exercise, walking 
one, two, or three miles every day. My great want is the lack- 
of active mental occupation. I have been so long accustomed to 
such aliment, having a share in the administration of affairs 
around me, that its absence now leaves a great void. I employ 
myself first in reading the newspapers — chiefly, whenever I can get 
them — from the Northern States. It interests me deeply to see 
the struggle of parties there, and to speculate on the result so far 
as it may affect our unhappy South. In this view, I have pro- 
cured, through a friend, a subscription to be made to the official 
' Register of Debates ' in Congress, and read them regularly, every 
word ; it keeps me well informed in every phase of their inter- 
necine war. * * I have received a paper from Mr. McMurtrie, 
at Philadelphia, in form of a resignation of my executorship of 
your brother Anthony's estate, with a request that I should make 
an affidavit to it before the Consul of the United States. It may 
amuse you to know what passed at the interview. I found at the 
office a Vice-consul, as it appeared. I handed him the paper, 
which was brief, and had my name in full written in it, telling him 
I had received it from counsel at Philadelphia, with instructions 
to make affidavit to it before the Consul of the United States and 
return it, to be used in the Courts there. It was manifest that 
he knew me, for pausing, after he read it, he said, ' Are you a citi- 
zen of the United States ?' I replied, ' I am not' Another pause. 
' Of what country are you a citizen ?' I replied, ' I am at present, 
and have been for some time, resident in England.' ' But,' said 
he, ' you must belong to some country ?' I answered, ' I was a 



578 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



citizen of the United States, and after the rupture there, became 
a citizen of the Confederate States — that when the Government 
of the latter had been unfortunately overthrown, I was in Europe, 
where I had remained since and without any purpose of returning 
to the United States.' After some hesitancy, he added, ' I sup- 
pose you may still be considered a citizen of the United States.' 
I replied, ' You may so consider it, if you please, but it will be 
your act, not mine.' 

" He then said, ' Perhaps I had better consult the Consul 
about it ' — and asked me to take a seat for a few minutes, apolo- 
gizing for the delay — indeed, his manner was exceedingly civil 
throughout. After a few minutes he came back from an inner 
room, and said, ' The Consul did not think himself authorized, 
under the circumstances, to administer the affidavit — that his 
authority was limited only to citizens of the United States, or to 
British subjects,' and went on to explain why. He was very 
civil, however, and expressed regret that I should be put to addi- 
tional trouble in the matter, himself suggesting that the affidavit 
would be equally good if made before the Lord Mayor, then the 
Consul would officially certify to the Mayor's signature — and so 
I took leave. I made the affidavit before the Lord Mayor, my 
bankers obtained the certificate of the Consul, and it went off 
under cover to Mr. McMurtrie by the steamer of the 3d. Such 
are my relations with my former country — but I hope what was 
done will remove the obstacles to gaining your inheritance. 

" I went on Saturday evening with Mr. Benjamin, to pay a 
visit in the country to Sir Frederick Pollock, ' Lord Chief Baron 
of the Exchequer,' the highest judicial officer except the Lord 
Chancellor, in the Kingdom, and remained until Monday morning 
— a really great man, and though 8j years of age, in full posses- 
sion of all his faculties, mental and physical. He has a large 
family around him of young ladies by his second marriage — 
very pleasant and agreeable people, and we had a very pleasant 
visit — the old gentleman full of intelligence, anecdotes, and pleas- 
antry ; indeed, there must be something in this dreary climate of 
England which takes away from long life those infirmities which 
may sometimes make it a calamity. I have seen old men, 
decrepit, in the lower classes, but such instances are very rare in 
the higher classes. My late host, for instance, rises at 5 o'clock, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



579 



breakfasts at half past eight, goes to London by railroad, arriving 
at half past nine, sits in Court every day for three-fourths of the 
year, from ten to four, returns home, arriving at half past five, 
dines at seven, and retires at nine — and this is a daily routine; 
from his looks, voice, and gait, he would pass well for sixty or 
sixty-five. 

" The late Lord Palmerston, in his eighty-second year, as 
leader of the House of Commons, would be in his seat night after 
night, and taking a vigorous part in debate, until one, two, or three 
in the morning. It may be that exercise on horseback contributes 
to this robust longevity — in the country, they are in the field all 
day. hunting or shooting; in town, they are on horseback an hour 
or two of each day, in the Park, and move at a round pace — so 
much for John Bull. 

" With best love to all, yours my dear wife, ever, 

" J. M. MASON." 

" 24 Upper Seymour Street, 

" Portman Square, 
"London, March 15th, 1866. 

" My Dear Wife : I think I mentioned in one of my late 
letters that your cousin, Ben Howard, and his daughter M., had 
written to me telling me of the proposed fair at Baltimore for 
relief of our suffering countrymen in the South, and asking if I 
could send them any aid from England. I am gratified to say, 
that as the result, so far, of a short note that I sent to the London 
'Times' published on the 9th instant, saying that I would receive 
and remit any voluntary contributions that might be sent to me, 
I have received already £ 187 which with exchange when received 
at Baltimore ought to be equal to $1,000 there in gold, and con- 
tributions are still coming in. I should hope, in the course of 
another week, that my deposit will not fall below £300. I have 
been really gratified in having it thus in my power to do some- 
thing, even at this distance, for the relief of our suffering country- 
men. I shall send it to Mrs. Howard, to be made the first or intro- 
ductory entry on her cash account. * * * 

** I think I have never answered your inquiry whether my 
friend Lord Ashburton was the son of your former acquaintance, 
Miss Willing, of Philadelphia. He was, as I know from history. 



^8o LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

He said that his father went, in early life, on a visit to the United 
States, with general permission to go where he pleased, the only- 
restriction placed on him being that he should not marry abroad — 
but, I suppose he could not, as others could not after him, resist 
the Philadelphia lady. 

" One of the Crenshaws, lately from Richmond, came in to 
see me just as I began this letter, and remained so long talking 
over Richmond, its people and affairs, topics most interesting to 
me, that I have barely time to close my letter for the mail, though 
I do not know that I have anything more to say than to add my 
best love to all under your roof. 

" Yours ever, 

" J. M. MASON." 

In his next letter, a week later, he says : " I have spoken to 
you of my comparative success as a recipient of contributions 
for the ' Ladies' Fair ' in Baltimore — at present amounting to 
nearly £300, which sum, or very near it, I shall be able to 
send — say equal in Baltimore to at least $1,500, in gold — pretty 
well, I think, for one who never even hinted a request, far less 
solicited any one for aid, but the English are really a liberal peo- 
ple whenever either their sympathies or a sense of duty impels 
them. 

" Of myself, I have nothing to tell you — time flows by in an 
even current, and the occupations of one day are those of 
another. My mind is, of course, engrossed with the condition of 
things at home, and the state of affairs, with the conflict of par- 
ties, in the United States, so far as the latter tend to results that 
may affect that home. Since the war, and more especially since 
Congress met, everything there has been chaos. President John- 
son has certainly far surpassed, both in his statesmanship, and his 
will to carry it into effect, anything that could have been expected 
of him from his former career, but in his position as the Executive 
what he can do, must be rather to frustrate mischief in others, 
than to carry out a policy of his own. The rude shocks which 
the whole structure of the Government sustained during the war 
were such as to dislocate all the balances of power, . and pretty 
nearly to destroy every limitation on the will, or even the caprice, 
of those who administer it, and our own unhappy country so far, 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



581 



the powerless victim. I read, or rather study, here all the public 
papers that emanate from Washington, as well as the speeches of 
the leading men there on all sides, trying as far as I can, to pry 
into the future, both of the North and South — and it becomes to 
me every day more and more apparent that the Government there 
has a problem to solve, in what they call reconstruction, and a 
burthen to carry in their immense debt, without a man in office 
capable of appreciating the difficulties before them, far less of 
pointing a way to be extricated from them. The policy of John- 
son, even for their own interests, is far the best that has been 
devised; whether the masses at the North will sustain him in it, 
considering of what material those masses are composed, is to me 
even more than doubtful — whilst certain it is that the present 
Congress will leave nothing undone to frustrate it — thus every- 
thing remains in chaos, at least until a new Congress meets in 
December, 1867, nearly two years hence — and it may very probably 
be that the ship of state, with ignorant helmsmen, and a mutinous 
crew, will founder and go to pieces in the meantime — in such case, 
the South alone will survive the wreck.'' 

Again, in a letter to one of his daughters, dated April 5th, 
he writes: "I received last week yours of the 15th. The nar- 
rative you give of the various lots of our old friends in Winchester 
is certainly melancholy, yet to me deeply interesting — whatever it 
may be, we like to know the fortunes and fates of those with whom 
we once happily lived, and ' long been parted.' It would be pain- 
ful indeed to go back there, and witness the melancholy ruins of 
that once peaceful and exemplary society. In my varied inter- 
course with the world, I have met with some whom I held in dis- 
esteem, with others in contempt, as unworthy, and some few who 
were essentially had, but, in looking back, I do not recognize that 
my feelings toward any such amounted to acrimony, or insuper- 
able hate. Now it is otherwise. I confess, that toward every man 
or thing North, there has arisen within me a feeling of detesta- 
tion that I can not express or qualify, if I would. In the war they 
waged against us, they were demons — in victory, they proved 
themselves fiends. There are, of course, individual exceptions I 
doubt not, but I have yet to learn of one prominent man there who 
has, since the rupture, expressed a sentiment, or evinced a feeling, 
that would not be held a disgrace to manhood elsewhere. Such 



582 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



are the opinions that have been forced upon me of that people dur- 
ing the last five years. I need not ask myself, then, can I ever 
go back to the South, and live there whilst there remains any 
political union with such a race ? Social, or voluntary union, there 
can never be again. Had I been caught there, and obliged to re- 
main, I feel that I should have died by slow torture — a life to 
which a doom of penal servitude, with the most depraved of the 
earth, can only be compared. 

" As to the future of that noble South, I confess I can at pres- 
ent see nothing but in gloom and despondency — the sources of 
wealth are dried up, and her social structure destro3^ed forever, 
yet I am satisfied, as far as human judgment may be trusted, that 
the blow which severs North from South as distinct political 
communities, has been delivered by the war — though it may take 
years, perhaps generations, to realize it. It must follow, too, as 
experience gradually develops, that men of degree and condition, 
born and raised in the South, can live under a Northern rule, only 
as under taskmasters. The young men, at least, of such class, will 
leave the country and establish themselves in masses elsewhere. 
To this I fear there will be no alternative. For this colonization, 
I know of no region preferable to the British Colonies, first, 
because with that race we are homogeneous, with the same lan- 
guage, literature, and laws, and next, because our form of govern- 
ment was molded chiefly upon theirs. 

" There is one of those colonies which, if our people could 
reach in numbers, they might make into a new South — Australia 
— but it is too far off for a people as little enterprising as ours. 
Canada has, by accident and circumstances, been forced upon us, 
and I suppose for a time, at least, we must remain there, but the 
most available point, because of its proximity, and perhaps the 
most free from objection, is Mexico — true, there may be some 
doubt about the stability of its government, and its exemption from 
pestiferous Yankee fraternization, but I have watched it with some 
care, and I think, as time goes by, the probability of stability im- 
proves. Captain Maury, late of our Navy, went to Mexico at the 
close of the war, and has just come to England to take his family 
with him back to Mexico. 

" The Emperor, it seems, has placed him at the head of a 
Bureau of Emigration, and his accounts of the prospects for 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



583 



Southern emigrants there (of whom there are already many) are 
couleur de rose. He has been here but for a day or two, and I 
have seen him but once, but I shall have a long conversation with 
him, and subject him to a severe cross-examination before I form 
a judgment. What would you all think of an emigration, en 
toute famille, to Mexico? 

" I have written you a long philosophic letter, but as you said 
in yours, it was on the subject always uppermost in my mind. 

"What you say of the usages of society in. Montreal, is 
English all over — they have no opportunity for what we call 
social visiting — because of their late dinners ; they have no even- 
ing until ten or eleven o'clock at night. Of the many that I know 
here, and where I have been most hospitably received, there are 
but two families where I could think of a visit in the evening — 
that of the late Lord Donoughmore, and Mr. Beresford Hope, 
where my relations were as cordial, almost, as with those at home ; 
and then I would enquire of the servant, whether the ladies had 
returned to the drawing-room, and whether there was company 
at dinner, before I ventured farther. 

" I remark what you have said about the proposed fair at 
Baltimore — in my late letters, I told what I had done for it, and 
which I hope ' will help it along.' In addition to a sterling bill 
for very nearly £300, I sent off by steamer to New York last 
week, a box containing various articles, some contributed, and 
others purchased with money I received after I had remitted, and 
containing also the silver salt cellars, sent by the Dowager March- 
ioness of Bath with her crest on them. I should think what I 
have sent over, ought to amount to some seventeen or eighteen 
hundred dollars in gold. 

" I have nothing to add concerning myself, except that I am 
getting very tired and lonesome, and long to get back — yet I shall 
ever cherish grateful recollections of my residence in England, 
and of the many valued friendships contracted here, whatever the 
harshness of its Government toward us. 

" Yours, my dear daughter, most affectionately, 

"J. M. MASON." 



384 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



" 24 Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square, 

"London, April 12th, 1866. 

"My Dear Wife: I had the pleasure to receive, last week, 
yours of the 22d and V.'s of the 23d of March, my due for this 
week, not yet arrived. I was not prepared to hear of the death of 
my brother Maynadier, or rather, I had no intimation that he was 
in failing health — there have been sad ravages indeed in my 
family in the last five years — but it is vain to repine. 

" I had a long letter recently from Mr. Sherrard, dated 22d 
of March. He gives a melancholy picture of scenes and things 
around our old home, including the depraved and vagabond condi- 
tion of the negroes, and of the usurpations in society there, by the 
Yankees, male and female, but he says, at the same time, con- 
firmatory of other accounts that reach me, that the people of our 
noble South remain unsubdued in spirit. I can have one advan- 
tage at least in exchanging England for Canada, that I shall be 
nearer to them, and possibly have the opportunity of seeing and 
counselling with those who may come out frorri amongst them. 
The future of the South is far from being settled, I mean its 
political future. We can, at the present, no longer confide in her 
strength, but there is much to hope from the condition of the 
enemy. The experiences to be derived from the ' beggar on 
horseback.' may illustrate the career of the Yankees now in power. 
It would seem they have eaten, in the flush of unhoped-for 
ascendency, of the insane root. In my readings of history, except 
in the worst throes of the French Revolution, no country was ever 
environed with greater perils, or was in more incompetent hands, 
than that represented by the Government at Washington. France, 
after years of convulsion, found a Napoleon — there was no con- 
vulsion under him, but to avoid it he had to make war against 
the world — should the Yankees not find a Napoleon, our chance 
may be in their continued convulsion — should they find one, then 
in the wars which would surround him. But it is idle to talk of 
politics, when we shall soon have the opportunity of discussing 
them in person. 

" With best love to all, yours ever, 

"J. M. M." 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MA80N. 



585 



" 24 Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square, 

" London, April 26th, 1866. 

" My Dear Wife: In my letter of last week, I told you I had 
definitely settled to sail in the ' Moravian,' then advertised for 
the loth of May. I hope now, that you and our dear circle around 
you will be agreeably disappointed to learn, that those managing 
the steamers have since determined that the ' Moravian ' shall sail 
on the 3d, and my passage is engaged in her for that day, and I 
shall thus have the great satisfaction of expediting my departure 
by a week, and hope to be with you within a week after you receive 
this. 

" I have been very busily engaged in packing up the material 
that has accumulated around me in the last four and a half years, 
to take with me, and in closing my arrangements, social and 
otherwise, for leaving England — really a troublesome task, but 
I am getting on pretty well. 

" I paid a visit to-day to my kind and excellent friend, the 
Countess of Donoughmore. I think I told you in my late letters of 
the death of the late Earl, some six or eight weeks since, and 
how much I deplored it — it was my first visit to her since then ; 
I sat with her for an hour, talking on those subjects that inter- 
ested him in his lifetime — it was an agreeable and pleasant visit — 
for I think next to the family of Mr. Hope, they were those with 
whom I was on most intimate and cordial terms. She is a lady of 
some thirty-six or seven, gentle, refined, and genial in her manner 
and of unafifected simplicity. I often wish that you and the girls 
could have known some of those by whom I have been most kindly 
received in England. They all know, through me, of your being in 
Canada, and their first inquiry is about you and yours, and when 
I heard from you. When I get back, I can show you substantial 
proofs that such inquiries are not merely formal. 

" This is Thursday, and the steamer sails on this day week ; 
I propose to go to Liverpool on Monday, and shall there be the 
guest of my valued friend, Mr. Spence, until I embark. 

" Trusting that I shall find you and all dear to us, with you, 
in good health and glad to see me back, 

" I am, most affectionately yours, 

"J. M. MASON." 



586 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



The long hoped-for day came at last and, in April, 1866, Mr. 
Mason joined his family in Montreal, where some weeks were 
spent in quiet enjoyment of the reunion. During this summer 
quite a number of refugees from the South found an asylum in 
the little town of Niagara, situated at the mouth of the Niagara 
River. General Breckenridge (ex-Confederate Secretary of War) 
had, among others, established himself with his family, in this 
village, and his description of its quiet seclusion and the great 
economy of its simple village life induced Mr. Mason to leave 
Montreal in July of the same year and spend the rest of the 
summer with the party of Confederates there assembled. 

The next winter was spent in Toronto, where they were again 
in the midst of Southern refugees, among whom were several of 
the families that had been together in Niagara. In Toronto as 
in Montreal, indeed everywhere in Canada, the kind welcome ex- 
tended to the Southern people contributed greatly to cheer and 
brighten the lives of these exiles. Such was certainly the case 
with Mr. Mason's family, and the writer is glad to record their 
grateful appreciation of the kindness they received. 

The spring of 1867 brought no gleam of hope for the South ; 
on the contrary, an Act of Congress, passed in March, 1867, 
created five military districts consisting of the ten Southern 
States ; placed the people of these States under absolute military 
rule, and denied to them the right to protect themselves by their 
own militia in any emergency whatever. It required the forma- 
tion of new Constitutions by State conventions ; provided for the 
registration of voters ; and declared " No one can be registered 
who may be disfranchised for participation in the late rebellion." 
Voters to be male citizens of the State, twenty-one years old, of 
whatever race, etc.. residents of State for one year. 

Mr. Davis was still in prison ; Mr. R. M. T. Hunter, of Vir- 
ginia, and a number of other gentlemen who had filled offices 
of responsibility in the Confederacy had been imprisoned after the 
surrender of the Sovithern armies ; and fourteen classes had been 
named in the President's last proclamation as being excluded from 
the benefit of all offers of amnesty or pardon. The majority, if 
not all, of the Confederates then in Canada were thus excluded 
from pardon ; were in fact exiles. Mr. Mason was classed among 
the chief offenders, and he never for a moment entertained the 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



587 



thought of applying for pardon, or of taking any oath of allegiance 
to the Government or to the Constitution of the United States 
as it was then administered. It was therefore determined, in 
family council, to go back to Niagara as soon as warm weather 
began and to remain there awaiting events. Mr. Mason accord- 
ingly rented a small but convenient house in that village and went 
to work to provide for the comfort of his family. He gave close 
attention to his garden and to his poultry-yard, particularly to the 
latter ; always feeding the chickens and gathering the eggs him- 
self, and taking infinite pride and pleasure in his success when he 
brought in a basket of eggs or reported another brood of little 
chickens ; thus did he adapt himself to the simple routine of a 
country village as though he had been to the manner born. The 
memorandum book is still extant in which he wrote the dates when 
each hen began to set, the number of eggs given to her, and the 
number of chickens hatched. He was never idle and he was 
habitually cheerful. His leisure hours had always been occupied 
in reading — particularly in reading history ; it now became his 
chief resource — the newspapers were daily searched for informa- 
tion concerning everything that affected the Southern people ; and 
his correspondence with friends in England, as well as with those 
in the South, served to employ many hours that must otherwise 
have dragged heavily. Letter-writing was one of his greatest 
pleasures, although a nervous affection of his hand made him 
dependent upon an amanuensis. It was his invariable rule to 
take a short nap every day after an early dinner, and then to take 
a long walk or ride, accompanied always by some of the young 
people of his family and frequently by a party of their young 
friends. His evenings were spent partly in reading or writing in 
his study, and partly in the parlor, where he always joined the 
family party an hour or two before bed-time ; he would then read 
aloud anything that had specially interested him in his books or 
papers or would smoke his pipe while he joined in the general 
conversation. 

In this monotonous manner the days, weeks, and months 
glided by, marked by nothing worthy of record except the occa- 
sional visits from a few of his old friends, who sometimes came 
during the summer months to see him. Among these visitors were 
Hon. J. A. Bayard (U. S. Senator from Delaware) and his son, 



588 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



Mr. T. F. Bayard, who afterwards succeeded his father in the 
Senate and still later became Ambassador from the United States 
to England. Mr. James Bayard and Mr. Mason had been closely 
associated during many years in the Senate — they had been again 
together in London and in Paris when Mr. Bayard had, during 
the war, taken refuge abroad from the troubles at home. Another 
of these visitors was *Mr. Corcoran, of Washington, who had 
spent much time abroad during the war and had been brought 
into constant intercourse with Mr. Mason both in London and in 
Paris ; last, though far from least, was Hon. J. Randolph Tucker, 
of Virginia, who had been, from his boyhood in Winchester, re- 
garded by Mr. Mason almost as a son, so constant and so con- 
fidential had been their intercourse. 

Of the Confederate officers resident for the time in Niagara 
none remained there during the whole of Mr. Mason's sojourn. 
General Breckenridge and General Early spent the greater part of 
the summers of 1866 and 1867 in or near the town and General 
John S. Preston, of South Carolina, with his family, added much 
to the pleasure of the circle during their stay of some months in 
the summer of 1868. 

The writer recalls very vividly the appearance of the group of 
Confederate officers as they were so frequently seen sitting 
together under the trees in front of Mr. Mason's house ; some- 
times looking grave and anxious when letters from home brought 
accounts of the devastation of the South, the destruction of its 
homes and the consequent poverty and suffering of its people — 
or the newspapers reported the oppression and tyranny of the 
conquerors in the appointment to all the offices in the Southern 
States of only such men as were willing tools in the work of 
reconstructing not only the system of State Government but the 
whole of their social and domestic organization. 

At other times, the same party would be amused by remi- 
niscences of bygone days and one after another they would recall 
old stories told at the expense of each other until the peals of 
laughter would have done justice to a party of schoolboys — 
particularly was this the case during the visit of Mr. Randolph 
Tucker who excelled in the art of telling good stories, and whose 

*The founder of the Louise Home, and of the Corcoran Art Gallery in 
Washington. 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ^89 

mimicry was inimitable. Such scenes were oases in the desert 
of blighted hopes and dreary anticipations to which they had been 
condemned. 

The visits of most interest during this period were those 
from Mr. Davis who came in May or June, 1867, very soon after 
his release from prison, and again in the autumn when he was 
summoned to Richmond to stand his trial for treason, he came to 
take leave of Mr. Mason, with whom a warm friendship had 
existed for many years. On both occasions he spent some days 
quietly sharing in the usual family routine, and those who were 
privileged to be present during many of his conversations with 
Mr. Mason, can never forget the calm dignity of the man, nor the 
entire absence of all bitterness when speaking of his experience 
in prison. It does not pertain to the object of this book to recount 
the cruelties practised upon him or the sufferings that he endured. 
Few men have been subjected to such an ordeal, none could have 
borne the test more nobly. The reader is referred to the " Prison 
Life of Jefiferson Davis " by Dr. John J. Craven, late surgeon of 
the United States Volunteers and physician of the prisoner during 
his confinement in Fortress Monroe from May 25th, 1865, to 
December 25th, 1865. 

On July 4th, 1868, general amnesty was proclaimed by Presi- 
dent Johnson, but this did not include restoration to the rights of 
freeman ; it only offered to the Southern people the poor privilege 
of returning to their respective States to find their former homes 
reduced to ruins, and to be themselves reduced to the condition of 
quiet submission while ignorant and irresponsible negroes elected 
men to fill all the offices of the several departments of Govern- 
ment, both State and municipal. 

No description of this period can give an adequate concep- 
tion of it to those who did not live through it. Mr. Mason fre- 
quently said, " I do not believe I could endure life in Virginia 
under existing circumstances ; to me it would be death by slow 
degrees under torture ; I should feel as though I was bound hand 
and foot and forced to be a silent witness while the graves of my 
parents were desecrated by savages." 

The number of Southern people in Canada diminished, how- 
ever, gradually, as one after another went back to their respective 
States until only the Mason family remained in Niagara. Another 



590 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



six months rolled by before they began to entertain the idea of 
returning to Virginia. It may be that Mr. Mason had some con- 
sciousness of failing strength, although he did not betray it to any 
one, and his health appeared to be unimpaired. His step had lost 
none of its elasticity, and there were few, if any, marks of advanc- 
ing age visible to others, but early in the year 1869 he began to 
talk of going back to Virginia. He repeatedly said to his wife and 
daughter, " I can not be much longer with you, and I am not will- 
ing to leave you so far from home and in a foreign land. I feel 
that I ought to take you back to your own people." 

The selection of their future residence then became the 
matter of chief interest with him. The old home at Selma had 
been destroyed by Federal troops and a fort had been built of the 
stones taken from the house. The town of Winchester had suf- 
fered terribly at the hands of invading armies, and many of its 
best citizens had been driven from their homes — consequently the 
thought of returning there to live was painful in the extreme. 

It was at last determined that before deciding so important 
a question, Mr. Mason would, as he expressed it, " Go in person 
to see how far the waters had subsided." " This will afford," he 
said, " an opportunity to indulge my long cherished wish to visit 
several of my old friends. Judge Sherrard, in Winchester, James 
Marshall, in Fauquier County, Richard Cunningham, and others. 
In this way I shall see the true state of things in different places 
and will be better able to decide upon our resting-place." In 
pursuance of this plan he left Canada in the early summer of 1869, 
and made the proposed visits in Virginia, spent some days in 
Baltimore with his relative and friend, Mr. Nevitt Steele, went to 
see his sister-in-law, Miss Anne Chew, at the old home, Cliveden, 
fn Germantown, Philadelphia, and also visited General and Mrs. 
Cooper in their home in Fairfax County, Virginia. The warmth 
and heartiness of the welcome that awaited him everywhere 
touched and gratified him exceedingly and he thoroughly enjoyed 
meeting so many of his friends ; but in Winchester he was deeply 
grieved by the absence of so many of those with whom he had 
formerly been very closely associated, and by the sad changes in all 
that he saw or heard. While a guest in Judge Sherrard's house 
in that town, he became quite ill, in consequence, it was said, of 
drinking the limestone water. Query : How far did mental suffer- 
ing affect his physical condition? 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



591 



" When he returned to Canada, his family were shocked and 
grieved by the change wrought in him during the few weeks of his 
absence. His step was slow and heavy, its elasticity was all gone. 
He came back an old man, and from that time his infirmities 
gradually increased. He was. however, very much delighted with 
his success in finding a " resting-place " that combined more 
advantages and attractions than he had ventured to hope for. He 
had selected the residence called " Clarens," in the neighborhood 
known as " Seminary Hill," in Fairfax County, Virginia, some 
three miles west of Alexandria. He thus looked forward to pass- 
ing his old age in the section of the State where his childhood was 
spent. " Clarens " was within a short walk of the Episcopal 
Theological Seminary ; was very near the home of Bishop Johns 
and adjoined the residence of General and Mrs. Cooper ; it thus 
offered the pleasant prospect of constant association with both 
these families, a prospect particularly agreeable because of the 
near connection and truly fraternal relations with General Cooper 
that had existed so many years, and because of the friendship 
with Bishop Johns, formed when he and Mr. Mason had been 
schoolboys in Philadelphia and frequent visitors at Mrs. Mason's 
home in that city. 

September 24th, 1869, was the happy day on which the sub- 
ject of this sketch took possession of " Clarens " and thus realized 
his longing desire to have once more a home on Virginia soil. 

Here the curtain rose on brighter scenes than those before 
presented in this volume, for here he gathered around the family 
hearth as many as possible of their surviving friends and relatives ; 
here he derived much pleasure and gratification from his inter- 
course with Bishop Johns, Rev. Dr. Sparrow, Mr. Cassius Lee, 
and others living in the neighborhood and also from the visits of 
Mf. Bayard, Mr. Davis, and other friends who sometimes came to 
see him. But there is little to be told of this quiet domestic life, 
although it afforded some incidents interesting at the time to those 
who recognized the former Adjutant-General of the Army of the 
United States and the Senator from Virginia, Chairman of the 
Committee on Foreign Relations, in the two old men who were 
seen constantly together, and busily engaged in some work in the 
gardens or orchards of their respective homes. The picture comes 
vividly before the writer of the two old gentlemen sitting on three 



592 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



legged stools in the corn-house at Cameron, General Cooper's 
home, shucking corn one frosty November afternoon, and laugh- 
ing over their experience ; General Cooper bantering Mr. Mason 
about the blisters on his hand, while the General escaped unhurt 
although he had " shucked the biggest pile of corn." 

At " Clarens," as in Canada, Mr, Mason's correspondence 
formed one of his chief occupations. The following letters claim a 
place here because of their historic value. The first one is from 
Mr. R. M. T. Hunter, and is dated : 

" Lloyd's, Essex County, October i6th, 1869. 

" My Dear Mason: Soon after my return from confinement, 
I received a letter from you written from Canada, which I would 
have liked very much to answer, but I did not believe I could do 
so through the post-office without a surveillance which I did not 
wish to encounter. When I saw accounts of you at Winchester, 
through the papers, I wrote to a friend in Washington to ascertain 
where a letter would reach you. He replied that he did not know 
but thought you had returned to Canada, It was not until about 
three weeKs ago that I heard you had settled near Alexandria, 
where I shall send this letter in the hope of its finding you. I 
wish I could see you, for of all persons in the world I had rather 
talk to you just now. 

" Our people are looking for sad times after the ist Januar) 
when the stay law will expire ; still we are all working away, with 
such means as we have, and our people, I believe, are trained now 
to stand almost anything. Certainly we have shown wonderful 
powers of endurance, and like Gulliver when crammed by the 
Brobdignag Monkey, we have been filled ad nauseam by such good 
things as they have chosen to give us. 

" In your letter you seemed to think that a good day was yet 
coming to old Virginia. I still retain enough faith in her and 
enough of the old optimism of my disposition to hope so too. But 
I do not expect it in the sense that you seem to do. The day must 
come when she will recover much of her political power and 
develop great natural wealth and prosperity. Our disasters and 
poverty will give our posterity the training to achieve both. But 
what will become of the character of our people? Will it retain 
the moral and intellectual qualities of which we were so justly 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



593 



proud, and which were so wonderfully displayed in the war ? For 
myself, I would not give the last for the first, if that is to be the 
condition of our social reconstruction. Whoever drew the Under- 
wood Constitution (I have never doubted its New England 
origin), had a special eye to such a change in the Virginia char- 
acter. The change in our county organization had no other 
design. Yankee schools and Yankee system of county government 
are the instruments to effect the end. I have no objection to 
schools if they will let us establish them where practicable and 
upon our own plan. But I confess that the manner which all these 
things are forced upon us has been one of the most disagreeable 
results of the revolution. But why talk about such things — neither 
you nor I can do anything to remedy these evils — my only hope 
is in the excellence of the constitution of the Virginia character. 
It will take a great deal to break it down. I never meddle with 
politics now and scarcely ever talk of them when I can avoid it. 
But I would give a great deal to compare views with you of our 
future. I should like to hear from you our Confederate experi- 
ences abroad, in return for which I might possibly give you some 
of them at home of which perhaps you have something still to 
learn. 

" I am truly glad, my dear Mason, that you have settled again 
on Virginia soil and have your family around you. Please make 
my kindest respects to Mrs. Mason and the young ladies. What 
of your boys? I have heard nothing of George since some time 
before the war. 

" Most truly and sincerely, your friend, 

" R. M. T. HUNTER. 
" Hon. James M. Mason." 

"Memphis, Tenn., June nth, 1870. 
"Hon. J. M. Mason. 

" My Dear Friend: It has been long since I have received 
a letter from you. Perhaps, you will reply it has been long since 
I wrote to you, but it is of the first only I think, because therein 
consists the loss. It is probably that it may be in my power to 
visit you this summer, and it is possible that about the end of 
July I may start for England. Will you go with me in that event, 
for a trip say of sixty days? Your friends would be rejoiced to see 



594 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



you and I would endeavor to be as little disagreeable on the way 
as is possible for me. My journeys through the South and West 
have given me much to remember gratefully, and not a little to 
make me feel as one sorrowing without hope. 

" There is a deep undercurrent of patriotism and a manifest 
detestation of the Yankees, their tricks and their manners, but 
men who once led in Southern movements are, in many instances 
staining their record and shaming their friends by admissions in 
word and deed and by thus degrading themselves, gaining power 
and place. The fountain of place and honor, being corrupt, would 
have become odious to the rising generation if all who deserved or 
could command respect had refused to be beneficiaries. What is 
to be the effect of such defections? is the question which rises 
unbidden and to which comes the sad answer I have indicated. 

" Mr. Hunter promised me that he would write a full account 
of the sayings and doings of the commission which met Lincoln 
and Seward at Hampton Roads. I have not thought it well to 
write to him while he was subject to oppression by military and 
Underwood authority ; now I do not know his address. I have 
heard of Judge Campbell and Mr. Stephens making such partial 
statements as amount to the suppressio veri, and ' gentleman 
Hunter ' is my hope for truth and justice. 

" Having got into the subject I will give you a brief account 
of the matter. Stephens, notwithstanding the total failure of his 
first attempt, for which he volunteered, continued to speak in the 
Senate of the practicability of arranging a peace by peaceable 
conference. When the project which led to the commission re- 
ferred to was under consideration, I consulted Mr. Stephens, not 
intending again to send him. Others convinced me that it would 
be better to send him, because it would at least check his evil 
doing in the Senate, and as I had assurance that the commission 
would be received in Washington, it was thought he would be 
efficient there. The commission had no instructions beyond their 
authority to negotiate for a settlement between the two Govern- 
ments. They agreed with Lincoln and Seward that they would 
regard their conversations as confidential. Their report, when 
they came back was therefore to a great extent oral. The written 
report, so meager as not to furnish, as it seemed to me, what was 
needful to a fair comprehension of their failure and the reasons for 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. ege 



it, I urged seriously that a further report should be made. Mr. 
Stephens tenaciously insisted that the mere statement made would 
be more effective to rouse and convince the country. Since then 
I have heard of his saying that terms beneficial to the South were 
within reach but lost by my action, etc., etc. Hunter told me 
he (Hunter) urged Lincoln to enter into some form of agreement, 
and endeavored to overcome his refusal by pointing out to him 
the example of Charles I, and that Lincoln said he did not know 
much of history, but he did know that Charles I lost his head. 
They reported to me that Lincoln said if we would lay down our 
arms and go home, that he would promise all the clemency within 
the Executive power, and that he refused to make or entertain any 
proposition while we retained our position as States confederated 
and having a Government of their own. It was a demand for a 
surrender at discretion, so viewed at the time and so treated by the 
orators who addressed the public meetings held in Richmond 
soon after the return of the commission and the promulgation of 
their views. If you see Hunter I wish you would talk to him on 
this subject. May God defend the right. Present me affection- 
ately to Mrs. Mason and the young ladies and accept the sincere 
regard of your friend. 

" JEFFERSON DAVIS." 

An extract from a letter from Hon. R. M. T. Hunter is given 
here as referring to the same subject. It was dated: 

" Lloyd's, Essex County, Va., 

" September 19th, 1870. 

"My Dear Mason: I have read Davis's letter which you 
enclosed and regret that I did not write out minutely my recollec- 
tions of what passed at the Hampton Roads Conference whilst they 
were fresh in my mind. But I was imprisoned soon after the war 
and my papers were either seized or dispersed and since my return 
I have been engaged in hard work for a livelihood. As soon as I 
received this letter I sent for Stephens's account of the conference 
published in the Eclectic Review which really seemed to me to be 
very fair (August, 1870, Vol. 7, No. 2), and from which I do not 
much differ except as to the report of Seward's conversation on 
slavery, a matter which does not peculiarly touch Davis. I think 
Davis can not have seen the report which, in some respects, is quite 



5P<5 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



complimentary. You will see from that report that I did not 
assent to the scheme for invading Mexico, not, I confess, from any 
affection for the Emperor, whose whole course in regard to that 
matter and towards us seemed to me to be very weak. I was 
moved by considerations affecting ourselves. The whole scheme 
originated with F, Blair who, as you know, visited Richmond to 
persuade the Confederate Government to settle the controversy. 
Stephens was much taken with the proposition and enforced it 
very warmly upon Lincoln and Seward, not as a proposition from 
the Confederate Government, but as something to be considered. 
Campbell and I said nothing for a good while to see how the other 
party would take it — towards the close I disclaimed the whole 
thing as Stephens reports in his published account of the confer- 
ence. We all reported, I think, to Mr. Davis, I did, I know, that 
in our opinion no settlement was possible except upon the con- 
dition of abolishing slavery and returning to the Union. But 
there was a question beyond that : Supposing these things to be in- 
evitable, as they then seemed to be, was it not worth the effort to 
save as much as possible from the wreck? Upon this Mr. Davis 
and I differed — I thought the effort ought to be made, but I saw 
then and see it still more plainly now that there might be two sides 
to that question. Although I retainmy first opinion. I do not cen- 
sure him for thinking differently. When the concessions believed 
to be inevitable were made, one might well have supposed that the 
Federal Government would have sought to make them as tolerable 
as possible to us, and to conciliate us as far as was consistent with 
these objects. This was only to attribute to them an ordinary 
stock of good sense and good feeling, but I feared the bitterness 
of feeling engendered by the contest and although far from 
appreciating its full extent I was not mistaken as to its existence. 
Whilst I expressed this opinion to both Davis and Lee, I told them 
that if they thought there was hope from war, I would do my best 
to aid them; they were to be the judges of that matter. Under 
these circumstances I made a speech at the African Church which 
some of my friends thought was a mistake, but if the contest was 
to be kept up it was necessary to animate the spirit which could 
alone sustain it. 

" We were all agreed in the Government as to the policy of an 
armistice. We should then have obtained time either to get some 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. rpjr 

settlement of the question, which would have saved us much life 
and suffering, or else to recruit our armies, which were then 
suffering much from desertion and the want of all necessary 
supplies. But it was not to be had, which I think we all regretted. 
I hope, however, that we may meet some of these days, when I 
can explain these and other matters by word of mouth and far 
more fully than upon paper. The difficulties which the Con- 
federacy encountered are not generally known. The sacrifices and 
gallantry of the struggle on the part of the South, and especially 
of Virginia, have never been surpassed and hardly equalled in 
history. The Southern side of this history ought to be written. If 
I owned my time it would be a labor of love to endeavor to do it. 
" Most truly and faithfully, your friend, 

" R. M. T. HUNTER. 
'* Hon. James M. Mason." 

Few events of the war of 1861-65 aroused more interest at 
the time or have since caused more controversy than has been 
excited by this conference of February 3d, 1865, in regard to 
which widely differing opinions have been expressed. It may, 
therefore, be well to give in connection with these letters, the 
following extracts from official documents, taken from the Con- 
gressional Globe (second session, 38th Congress, Page 729). 

In President Lincoln's message to the Senate of the United 
States of February loth, 1865, reference is made to Mr. Seward's 
dispatch, on this subject, to Mr. Adams (Minister from the United 
States in London). In this dispatch Mr. Seward writes: 

" A few days ago Francis P. Blair, Esq., of Maryland, 
obtained from the President a simple leave to pass through our 
military lines without definite views known to the Government. 
Mr. Blair visited Richmond, and on his return he showed to the 
President a letter which Jefferson Davis had written to Mr. Blair, 
in which Davis wrote that Mr. Blair was at liberty to say to> 
President Lincoln that Davis was now, as he always had been, 
willing to send commissioners if assured they would be received,. 
or to receive any that should be sent ; that he was not disposed to 
find obstacles in forms. He would send commissioners to confer 
with the President with a view to the restoration of peace between 
the two countries if he could be assured they would be received. 



X 



^g8 LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

The President thereupon, on the i8th of January addressed a note 
to Mr. Blair, in which the President, after acknowledging that he 
had read the note of Mr. Davis, said that he was, is, and always 
should be, willing to receive any agents that Mr. Davis, or any 
other influential person, now actually resisting the authority of 
the Government, might send to confer informally with the Presi- 
dent with a view to the restoration of peace to the people of our 
one common country. Mr. Blair visited Richmond with this letter, 
and then again came back to Washington. 

" On the 29th ultimo, we were advised from the camp of 
Lieutenant Grant that Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, 
and^ohn A. Campbell were applying for leave to pass through 
the lines to Washington as peace commissioners to confer with 
the President. They were permitted by the Lieutenant-General 
to come to his headquarters to await there the decision of the 
President. Major Eckert was sent down to meet the party from 
Richmond at General Grant's headquarters. The Major was 
directed to deliver to them a copy of the President's letter to Mr. 
Blair, with a note to be addressed to them and signed by the 
Major, in which they were directly informed that if they should be 
allowed to pass our lines they would be understood as coming for 
an informal conference upon the basis of the aforenamed letter of 
the 1 8th of January to Mr. Blair. 

" If they should express their assent to this condition in 
writing, then Major Eckert was directed to give them safe con- 
duct to Fortress Monroe, where a person coming from the Presi- 
dent would meet them. It being thought probable, from a report 
of their conversation with General Grant, that the Richmond party 
would in the manner prescribed, accept the condition mentioned, 
the Secretary of State was charged by the President with the duty 
of representing this Government in the expected informal con- 
ference. The Secretary arrived at Fortress Monroe in the night 
of the first day of February. Major Eckert met him in the morn- 
ing of the 2d of February with the information that the persons 
who had come from Richmond had not accepted in writing the 
condition upon which he was allowed to give them conduct to 
Fortress Monroe. The Major had given the same information by 
telegraph to the President at Washington. On receiving this 
information the President prepared a telegram directing the Sec- 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



599 



retary to return to Washington. The Secretary was preparing the 
same moment to so return, without waiting for instructions from 
the President. But at this juncture Lieutenant-General Grant tele- 
graphed to the Secretary of War, as well as to the Secretary of 
State, that the party from Richmond had reconsidered and 
accepted the conditions tendered them through Major Eckert; 
and General Grant urgently advised the President to confer in 
person with the Richmond party. Under these circumstances the 
Secretary, by the President's direction, remained at Fortress 
Monroe, and the President joined him there on the night of Feb- 
ruary the 2d. The Richmond party was brought down the James 
River in a United States steam transport during the day, and the 
transport was anchored in Hampton Roads. 

" On the morning of the 3d, the President, attended by the 
Secretary, received Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell on 
board the United States steam transport River Queen, in Hamp- 
ton Roads. The conference was altogether informal. There was 
no attendance of secretaries, clerks, or other witnesses. Nothing 
was written or read. The conversation, although earnest and 
free, was calm, courteous, and kind on both sides. 

" The Richmond party approached the discussion rather in- 
directly, and at no time did they either make categorical demands 
or tender formal stipulations or absolute refusals. 

" Nevertheless, during the conference, which lasted four 
hours, the several points at issue between the Government and the 
insurgents were distinctly raised and discussed fully, intelligently 
and in an amicable spirit. What the insurgent party seemed 
chiefly to favor was a postponement of the question of separation, 
upon which the war is waged, and a mutual direction of efforts of 
the Government, as well as those of the insurgents to some ex- 
trinsic policy, or scheme for a season, during which passions 
might be expected to subside, and the armies be reduced and trade 
and intercourse between the people of both sections be resumed. 
It was suggested by them that through such postponement we 
might now have immediate peace, with some not very certain 
prospect of an ultimate satisfactory adjustment of political rela- 
tions between this Government and the States, section, and people 
now engaged in conflict with it. This suggestion though deliber- 
ately considered, was nevertheless, regarded by the President as 



(,00 ^I^^ OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



one of armistice or truce, and he announced that we can agree 
to no cessation or suspension of hostilities except on the basis of 
the disbandment of the insurgent forces and the restoration of 
the National authority throughout all the States in the Union. 
Collaterally, and in subordination to the proposition which was 
announced, the anti-slavery policy of the United States was re- 
viewed in all its bearings, and the President announced that he 
must not be expected to depart from the positions he had assumed 
in his proclamation of emancipation and other documents, as these 
positions were reiterated in his last annual message. It was 
further declared by the President that the complete restoration of 
the National authority, everywhere, was an indispensable con- 
dition of any assent on our part to whatever form of peace might 
be proposed. The President assured the other party that while he 
must adhere to these positions, he would be prepared, so far as 
power is lodged in the Executive, to exercise liberality. Its power, 
however, is limited by the Constitution ; and when peace shall be 
made Congress must necessarily act in regard to appropriations of 
money and to the admission of representatives from the insurrec- 
tionary States. The Richmond party were then informed that 
Congress had, on the 31st ultimo, adopted, by a constitutional 
majority, a joint resolution submitting to the several States the 
proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union; and that 
there is every reason to expect that it will soon be accepted by 
three-fourths of the States, so as to become a part of the national 
law. The conference came to an end by mutual acquiescence 
without producing any agreement of views upon the several 
matters discussed, or any of them. Nevertheless, it is perhaps of 
some importance that we have been able to submit our opinions 
and views directly to prominent insurgents, and to hear them in 
answer in a courteous and not unfriendly manner. 
" I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

"WILLIAM H. SEWARD. 
" To Charles Francis Adams, Esq., Envoy Extraordinary and 
Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at London." 

The message of President Davis to the Confederate Congress 
is added, also the report of the Confederate " Commissioners " 
(they are taken from the Richmond Whig of February 7th, 1865). 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 6oi 

" To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate 
States of America. 

" Having recently received a written notification which 
satisfied me that the President of the United States was disposed 
to confer informally with unofficial agents that might be sent by 
me, with a view to the restoration of peace, I requested Hon. 
Alexander H. Stephens, Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, and Hon. John A. 
Campbell to proceed through our lines to hold a conference with 
Mr. Lincoln, or such persons as he might depute to represent him. 

" I herewith submit for the information of Congress the re- 
port of the eminent citizens above named showing that the enemy 
refuse to enter into negotiations with the Confederate States or 
any one of them separately, or to give our people any other terms 
or guarantees than those which a conqueror may grant, or permit 
us to have peace on any other basis than our unconditional sub- 
mission to their rule, coupled with the acceptance of their recent 
legislation, including an amendment to the Constitution for the 
emancipation of negro slaves and with the right on the part of the 
Federal Congress to legislate on the subject of the relations 
between the white and black population of each State. 

" Such is, as I understand, the effect of the amendment to the 
Constitution which has been adopted by the Congress of the 
United States. 

" (Signed) JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

"Executive OMce, Richmond, February 6th, 1865." 



" Report of the Commissioners, 

" Richmond, Va., February, 1865. 
" To the President of the Confederate States: 

" Sir : Under your letter of appointment of 28th ult., we 
proceeded to seek an informal conference with Abraham Lincoln, 
President of the United States, upon the subject mentioned in your 
letter. The conference was granted, and took place on the 3d 
instant, on board a steamer anchored in Hampton Roads, where 
we met President Lincoln and Hon. Mr. Seward, Secretary of 
State of the United States. It continued for several hours and 
was both full and explicit. We learned from them that the mes- 
sage of President Lincoln to the Congress of the United States 



6o2 I'IFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 

in December ^ last, explains clearly and distinctly his sentiments as 
to terms, conditions, and method of proceeding, by which peace 
can be secured to the people. And we were not informed that they 
would be modified or altered to obtain that end. We understood 
from him that no terms or proposals of any treaty or agreement, 
looking to an ultimate settlement would be entertained or made by 
him with the authorities of the Confederate States, because that 
would be a recognition of their existence as a separate power, 
which under no circumstances would be done; and, for like rea- 
sons, that no such terms would be entertained by him from States 
separately ; that no extended truce or armistice, as at present 
advised, would be granted or allowed, without satisfactory assur- 
ances in advance, of a complete restoration of the authority of the 
Constitution and laws of the United States over all places within 
the States of the Confederacy ; that whatever consequences may 
follow from the reestablishment of that authority must be ac- 
cepted ; but that the individuals subject to pains and penalties 
under the laws of the United States, might rely upon a very liberal 
use of the power confided to him to remit those pains and penalties 
if peace be restored. 

" During the conference, the proposed amendments to the 
Constitution of the United States, adopted by Congress on the 
31st ult., were brought to our notice. These amendments provide 
that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, 
should exist within the United States or any place within their 
jurisdiction, and that Congress should have the power to enforce 
this amendment by appropriate legislation. Of all the corres- 
pondence that preceded the conference herein mentioned and lead- 
ing to the same, you have heretofore been informed. 
" Very respectfully, your obedient servants, 

" ALEX. H. STEPHENS, 
" R. M. T. HUNTER, 
" J. A. CAMPBELL." 

The historical records of this book end with these letters. 
^ It remains only to say : Mr. Mason lived little more than a 
year and a half after his return to Virginia ; his health failed 
gradually, there was no apparent disease — it seemed as though 
the infirmities of old age suddenly overpowered him, although he 



LIFE OF JAMES MURRAY MASON. 



603 



had not reached the age of seventy-three. The best advice was 
invoked, but there was not enough vitality to respond to any 
medical treatment, and it became evident that his days were 
numbered, although no one supposed the end was very near. 
With his accustomed calmness he arranged his earthly affairs in 
such way as to avoid risk of delay or inconvenience in providing 
for his family, and then expressed his wish to " Confess Christ 
before men," saying " I feel that I ought to give my testimony 
for the benefit of those who come after me." Although not a 
communicant of the church, yet there was never any question 
regarding his belief in the Bible and his reverence for the Chris- 
tian Faith. He talked with both Bishop Johns and the Rev. Dr. 
Sparrow on these subjects and said, " I must now go to church ; 
I feel it is right that I should leave my testimony." 

It is to be regretted that it was not in his power to carry 
out this purpose. He died at " Clarens " on April 28th, 1871. 
The Hon. Henry A. Wise said truly, when writing of his death: 
" It was not in the course of nature, or in the reason of things, 
that he could remain with us longer. The disasters to the Con- 
federacy and the South, the wounds to his pride, the aching agony 
of seeing all his hopes of liberty and self-government and State 
rights blasted, and the desecration of sacred things, and the devas- 
tation and demoralization he witnessed on coming home, were too 
much tension on the nerves of an aged man of delicate sensibili- 
ties and proud sense of honor. His system collapsed, and he fell 
under paralysis. His last moments were without pain, and he 
died as he lived, composed and firm. 

" He was an honest man, a highly cultivated gentleman, a 
well trained and practiced lawyer, a sound statesman, and a pure 
patriot. And as sure as the assurance of God's own word, that 
' he who doeth truth cometh to the Light,' James M. Mason's 
great and grand soul, unstained by earth in the natural life, hath 
now come in the spirit to the Light of Heaven." 







■^ci- ^ . .... .* -9>' <■■ ■^* 
















0' 







